CHINESE smartphone maker Vivo Communication Technology jumped from the fifth to the top spot by market share in China in the second quarter of this year, while U.S. tech giant Apple dropped from third to sixth, according to data from International Data Corporation, a leading information tech consulting firm. Vivo’s market share rose to 18.5% from 17.2% in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, IDC said in a report published Friday. Huawei Technologies ranked second with 18.1%, followed by Oppo with 15.7% and Honor with 14.5%, while Xiaomi climbed to the fifth spot with 14%. Dongguan-based Vivo seized the biggest share in smartphones priced between 1,000 yuan (US$138) and 2,000 yuan, between 3,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan, and between 4,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan. Its sub-brand iQOO took 5.5% of the overall market to become the most successful sub-brand. “Although the price promotions helped improve the iPhone’s demand in the second quarter, Apple still saw a 3.1% year-on-year decline, whereas the overall Android market grew 11.1%,” IDC noted. Chinese brands dominated the top five after a hiatus of nearly four years, it added. Foldable smartphone deliveries in China reached 2.6 million units and maintained a three-digit increase from a year earlier. With the release of more companies’ next-generation foldable models, this sub market will likely continue to grow fast in the second half, developing better than relevant global markets, IDC pointed out. Huawei ranked first in the foldable phone market with a share of 41.7%, followed by Vivo with 23.1%, Honor with 20.9%, Oppo with 8.4%, and Samsung with 3%. The market share of high-end phones, or those priced above US$600 each, rose 2.8 percentage points to 25.9% in the quarter from a year earlier, while of those priced between US$200 and US$600 fell 2.8 points to 46.3%. Some medium-income consumers opted to lower consumption amid economic impacts, choosing cheaper or used products that still meet basic use needs. China’s smartphone shipments jumped 8.9% to 71.6 million units in the second quarter from a year ago, IDC added. (SD-Agencies) | 