The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released data on China's mobile phone market for the first few months of this year, showing that domestic brands have achieved a higher growth rate in shipments. Apple sold approximately 20 million iPhones in the Chinese market, but price cuts since March have failed to reverse the downturn. It remains to be seen whether the 618 shopping festival can change Apple's situation in the Chinese market in the first half of this year.

According to CAICT data, mobile phone shipments in the Chinese market reached 122 million units in the first five months of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 13.3%. Domestic brand mobile phone shipments reached 102 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.8%.

From the comparison of the above data, it can be seen that the growth rate of domestic brand shipments is significantly higher than the overall shipment growth rate, and domestic brands account for 83.6% of the domestic mobile phone market share. In addition to the shipments of domestic brands, the remaining 20 million units, considering that Samsung's share in the Chinese mobile phone market is already very low, most of these 20 million units are Apple's iPhones.

Apple has actually felt the adversity in the Chinese market. It started slashing prices by 1,500 yuan in March this year, and the significant price reduction immediately yielded results, with a year-on-year increase of 50% in April. In May, to seize the opportunity of the 618 shopping festival, it further reduced prices by 2,000 yuan, and it is estimated that there was also a significant growth rate in May. However, the sharp decline in January to March, coupled with the growth in April and May, failed to reverse the downturn in the first five months.

However, Apple achieved an absolute advantage during the 618 shopping festival, with the top three spots in the best-selling TOP 10. Last year's 618 sales were almost equivalent to half of the second quarter's sales. Therefore, this year's 618 shopping festival may reverse Apple's downturn in the Chinese market and change the unfavorable situation in the first five months.

The competition in the domestic mobile phone market is more intense than ever before. Various mobile phone brands are doing everything they can to gain market share, with cost-effectiveness and verbal wars constantly raging. However, while it seems intense on the surface, it is actually far less intense than before 2016.

Before 2016, the price war between domestic mobile phones and Samsung was fierce, with phone prices dropping to as low as 300 yuan. There were a wide variety of phone models, with large speakers, long battery life, and other features that were great fun. Due to the low prices, consumers at the time were also quite generous, replacing their phones every 18 months.

Since then, domestic mobile phones have gained an advantage, with their market share exceeding 80% and concentrated in the hands of a limited number of mobile phone companies. The competition among domestic mobile phones is fierce only in words, but in reality, prices have continued to rise. In the past two or three years, the prices of domestic mobile phones have generally returned to over 1,000 yuan, and phones priced below 1,000 yuan are rarely seen.

This year, domestic mobile phones have once again attached importance to the low-end market. A domestic mobile phone brand that has always sold at high prices has recently also frequently launched phones priced at 1,000 yuan. However, so far, phones priced below 1,000 yuan are still scarce, and the launched phones priced at 1,000 yuan are too perfunctory for consumers, using mobile phone chips from 3 years ago or even 6 years ago, causing considerable dissatisfaction among consumers. The 618 shopping festival showed that domestic mobile phones priced below 2,000 yuan hardly made it into the top 10 best-selling list, and domestic mobile phones priced above 3,000 yuan were also nowhere to be seen. Instead, phones priced at over 2,000 yuan equipped with the previous generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 8G2 chip were quite popular.

It seems that domestic mobile phones have not yet accepted the market reality and are trying to maintain the average price of mobile phones above 1,000 yuan. However, consumer downgrading is an undeniable fact. Nowadays, consumers are reluctant to replace their phones easily. Some consumers have even used their phones for 4 years without replacing them, preferring to repair and continue using them. Compared to the generosity before 2016, consumers now want to save money and are reluctant to buy expensive phones. Even Apple, with its strong competitiveness, has had to slash prices by over 2,000 yuan to win consumer support.