Huawei Technologies took the crown in China’s smartphone market in January, buoyed by a government subsidy scheme for electronics purchases, according to the latest numbers from industry consultancy Counterpoint Research.
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Last year’s bestselling brand Vivo came second, followed by Xiaomi. Together, the top three vendors contributed around 54 per cent of the nearly 29 million smartphones sold in China last month, the report on Wednesday showed.
Total sales in the market rose 17 per cent from a year earlier, with handsets priced between 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan (US$275 and US$688) growing the fastest.
The Chinese smartphone market has been boosted by a government scheme that began on January 20, giving consumers a 15 per cent subsidy – capped at 500 yuan per purchase – for buying smartphones, tablets and smartwatches that cost under 6,000 yuan.
Smartphone sales from January 20 to 26, the first week of the programme, jumped 65 per cent year on year to over 9.5 million units, according to Counterpoint data.
The nationwide subsidy scheme had “ignited the vitality” of the Chinese smartphone market and was expected to bring an additional growth of 2 to 3 percentage points in first quarter sales, the research firm said.