Smartphone brand Vivo topped China smartphone market in the third quarter (Q3) with 23 per cent market share, followed by Oppo at 20 per cent, Honor at 15 per cent and Xiaomi with 14 per cvent market share at fourth position, a new report showed on Thursday.

Honor was the fastest growing brand, outperforming the market with 96 per cent QoQ growth in sales volume. It has made a strong comeback since June and its market share has almost doubled from 7.7 per cent in Q2 2021 to 15 per cent in the third quarter.

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China’s smartphone sales in Q3 2021 declined 9 per cent (on-year) but increased 3 per cent (on-quarter) to reach 76.5 million units, according to Counterpoint Research’s Monthly Market Pulse Service.

Due to weak consumer demand and component shortages, especially 4G chips, the country’s smartphone market failed to see any major improvement in sales in Q3.

“Although Covid-19 has been well contained in China due to its zero-tolerance approach, its economy has not come out unscathed, growing just 4.9 per cent YoY in Q3 2021, compared to 7.9 per cent YoY in Q2 2021,” said research analyst Mengmeng Zhang.

“In the meantime, China’s smartphone market remained stagnant with demand mainly coming from replacement needs. Lack of new smartphone features also kept many consumers away,” Zhang added.

Xiaomi’s position is expected to be challenged the most by Honor as both OEMs have a higher sales contribution from online channels when compared to other major Chinese OEMs.

“Apple’s ranking stayed unchanged in Q3 2021 (at fifth position), but it is expected to rise in Q4 2021 with the debut of the iPhone 13 series,” said senior research analyst Ethan Qi.