China's Mobile Phone Market in 2025: An Era of Eco-Competition, the Rise of Domestic Brands, and Apple's Steep Challenges

China's Mobile Phone Market in 2025: An Era of Eco-Competition, the Rise of Domestic Brands, and Apple's Steep ChallengesFebruary 2025 witnessed a dramatic reshuffling of China's mobile phone market, with significant shifts in market share rankings reflecting profound changes in the competitive landscape. Data reveals the continued strong rise of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, while Apple faces unprecedented challenges

China's Mobile Phone Market in 2025: An Era of Eco-Competition, the Rise of Domestic Brands, and Apple's Steep Challenges

February 2025 witnessed a dramatic reshuffling of China's mobile phone market, with significant shifts in market share rankings reflecting profound changes in the competitive landscape. Data reveals the continued strong rise of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, while Apple faces unprecedented challenges. Data from digital bloggers for the week of February 3rd to 9th (W6 2025) shows vivo reclaiming the top spot with a 19.1% market share. Xiaomi and Huawei followed closely, holding 17.4% and 16.6% respectively. Remarkably, Apple iPhone's market share plummeted to 12.4%, falling out of the top five for the first time in recent years to rank sixth a new low and a staggering 15% year-on-year decline. This marks a shift in the Chinese mobile phone market from a "share grab" to a new era of "eco-competition," offering profound insights into the rise of domestic brands and Apple's struggles.

Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) further corroborates this trend. In 2024, domestic brands accounted for 85.6% of mobile phone shipments, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%, while overseas brands continued to shrink. This indicates that domestic manufacturers, leveraging advantages in technological innovation, product strategy, and marketing, are progressively seizing the initiative in the Chinese mobile phone market.

The rise of domestic manufacturers is not accidental. Firstly, they have made significant breakthroughs in core technologies such as chips and operating systems. Huawei's Kirin chips, Xiaomi's Pengpai OS, and vivo's V-series imaging chips have become key differentiators, attracting numerous consumers. Secondly, domestic manufacturers have adopted an aggressive approach to product configuration, widely adopting 2K resolution screens, ultrasonic fingerprint unlocking, large battery capacities, and advanced 3nm process chips to meet consumer demand for high-performance, high-quality phones. Furthermore, they have focused on a cost-effective strategy, launching numerous high-volume models and leveraging extensive offline store networks to rapidly boost sales and market enthusiasm.

However, despite the strong overall performance of domestic manufacturers, individual brands face challenges. For example, Huawei's market share dropped from 19.3% in January to 16.6% in February, falling to third place. This may be due to supply chain adjustments and new product release cycles. However, with the launch of new models like the Huawei Nova 14 series and Pocket 3, and the rollout of new HarmonyOS versions, Huawei is expected to regain its peak performance, with potential for significant market share growth.

Apple's predicament is more serious. Its 12.4% market share is a record low, down 2.4 percentage points year-on-year, representing a 15% decrease. The iPhone's performance was particularly weak during the Lunar New Year period, failing to make the top five, reflecting issues with its rigid pricing strategy and lackluster product innovation. Unless Apple takes effective measures before the September new product launch, such as price cuts to stimulate demand, its market share could shrink further. The upcoming iPhone SE4 might help boost some market enthusiasm, but whether it can reverse the trend remains to be seen.

vivo's return to the top of the market share rankings during the W6 2025 period is largely due to the explosive growth of its sub-brand iQOO. iQOO independently contributed 4.2% of the market share, a significant improvement over the previous period, continuing vivo's lead in market share throughout 2024. Xiaomi (including Redmi) ranked second with a 17.4% market share, exhibiting strong year-on-year growth and increasing brand influence. OPPO (including OnePlus) achieved a 16.2% market share, while Honor reached 12.5%.

In conclusion, Apple iPhone faces strong competition from Huawei in the high-end market and pressure from Xiaomi, Honor, and others in the mid-range segment. The rise of domestic manufacturers reflects the vibrant development and technological innovation of China's mobile phone industry. For Apple to maintain competitiveness in the Chinese market, it must fundamentally overhaul its product strategy and proactively adapt to market changes. Future competition in China's mobile phone market will be even fiercer. Those who best adapt to the era of "eco-competition" will gain a competitive advantage. This will be a market full of challenges and opportunities, deserving continued attention. Currently, domestic manufacturers hold advantages in technological innovation, cost-effectiveness, and extensive offline channels, while Apple needs to make significant changes in product innovation, market strategy, and price adjustments to meet this challenge. This is an evolving market landscape with an exciting future. Continued innovation and competition from domestic manufacturers will further drive the development of China's mobile phone industry, while Apple's response will directly affect its future in the Chinese market. It's a market full of variables, and each manufacturer's strategy will influence the final market landscape. The competition in China's mobile phone market in 2025 is far from over.