Smartphone shipments in China posted a narrower decline in the second quarter, after reaching their lowest level in first-quarter shipments earlier this year, as Apple’s iPhone 14 discounts helped stimulate local demand and US-blacklisted Huawei Technologies returned to the market’s top-five ranking, reports the South China Morning Post.
The world’s largest smartphone market saw 65.7 million handsets ship in the quarter ended June 30, which was a smaller 2.1% decrease compared to the 14.8% drop in the same period last year, according to a report released by technology research firm IDC on Thursday.
Sluggish consumer demand, according to IDC, offset efforts by smartphone vendors and e-commerce operators to offer bigger handset discounts during the recent 618 shopping festival, which saw sales tumble more than 5%. This event is China’s second-largest retail extravaganza after Singles’ Day.