Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Cupertino-based tech giant pulled off a sales result for the ages in the biggest and most important smartphone market of them all between January and March 2026 as well, although China's number one vendor was actually unchanged from 2025.
Huawei's domestic supremacy is in major jeopardy
Thanks to a 7 percent year-on-year surge from 13 to 13.9 million units, Huawei managed to retain its top spot in Chinese smartphone shipments in Q1 2026. That relatively small increase in volume was enough to boost the company's regional share from 18 to 20 percent, which would have been a very impressive result... were it not for Apple's far greater jump from 13 percent back between the first three months of last year to 19 percent now.
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That's a teeny-tiny advantage for Huawei... that Apple is likely to obliterate by the end of the year. | Image by Omdia
That's right, there were no less than 13.1 million iPhones sold in China in the first three months of this year, up from just 9.2 million units in Q1 2025, and the main reason behind Apple's incredible growth is fairly easy to guess... for those of you who've been keeping an eye on the latest industry trends and especially the most recent movements on the pricing front.
Do you plan on buying a new phone in 2026?
Unlike Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor's Android devices, iPhones have "largely avoided broad price hikes" in the region due to rising memory chip costs, and if this trend continues, Apple can probably dream of ruling the Chinese handset market for the first time this year. After all, the Q1 gap between the top two vendors is super-small, and Apple is known for posting its best sales scores during the final quarter of any year.
Apple clearly kept the Chinese smartphone market from sinking
Just in case you haven't registered the magnitude of that increase from 9.2 million unit shipments in Q1 2025 to 13.1 million units in Q1 2026, allow me to put it differently for you. We're talking a 42 percent (!!!) year-on-year jump here... at a time when the market as a whole shrunk 1 percent. And now consider how much larger that decline would have been without Apple's huge improvement.
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Without Apple's excellent result, things would have been a lot worse for the Chinese smartphone market in Q1 2026. | Image by Omdia
Of course, Huawei's aforementioned 7 percent increase was nothing to sneeze at either, especially when you look at Oppo's 3 percent contraction and Xiaomi's disastrous 35 percent decline from 13.3 million to 8.7 million units and from 19 to 12 percent market share.
"Other" vendors didn't enjoy a very strong year-opening quarter either, falling by 7 percent to a combined result that was actually lower than Apple's solo sales score. Perhaps even more notably, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Honor held a 94 percent market share together in Q1 2026, suggesting Chinese consumers are less and less open to trying out newer or smaller brands. And yes, it appears that Samsung falls in that "smaller" category in the world's biggest smartphone market right now.
Where is the market heading next?
Unsurprisingly, the answer is "down", as analysts expect Chinese smartphone sales to fall by 10 percent overall in 2026 compared to 2025. That will primarily be caused by memory chip prices, which are likely to continue growing in the next few months and could even force Apple to follow everyone else's example with its own "broad" product price hikes.
It's hard to be certain of anything in a volatile market like China, but Apple looks set to move into first place in 2026. | Image by Omdia
Still, after beating Huawei by no less than six percentage points in regional market share in Q4 2025, Apple is clearly very likely to reign supreme in China (and around the world) at the end of this year, especially if the iPhone Fold (or iPhone Ultra) manages to see daylight and satisfy your initial global demand in September or October 2026.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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