In January, mobile phone shipments in the Chinese market fell 16.1% year-on-year, with domestic brands declining significantly.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the latest industry data today. Mobile phone shipments in the domestic market showed a significant decline in January this year, with a year-on-year decline of 16.1%. Data shows that the total mobile phone shipments in the domestic market in January this year were 22.866 million units. Among them, 5G mobile phones still dominate, with shipments of 19.87 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 15.9%, accounting for 86.9% of total mobile phone shipments during the same period.

Specific to the performance of domestic brands, domestic mobile phone shipments in January were 20.074 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 12.1%, accounting for nearly 90% of the market share. In terms of new models on the market, domestic brands launched a total of 33 models, with the number declining slightly year-on-year.

In the smartphone segment, shipments in January were 20.696 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 15.6%. Although shipments are shrinking, there are 32 new smartphone models on the market, a year-on-year increase of 28.0%, showing that manufacturers are stimulating the market through intensive new releases.

For leading manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor, OPPO, vivo and Apple, this year’s market environment is extremely severe. The skyrocketing cost of memory chips is forcing terminal products to significantly increase prices, which will largely curb users' enthusiasm for replacement.

Previously, supply chain people, industry analysts and insiders of many mobile phone brands said that starting from March, mobile phone price increases will enter an accelerated stage, with the minimum increase not less than 1,000 yuan, and the increase for mid-to-high-end flagship models may reach 2,000-3,000 yuan.

In addition, mainstream brands such as OPPO, OnePlus, vivo, iQOO, Xiaomi, and Honor may gradually increase the prices of older models. Coupled with frequent fluctuations in memory costs, the Chinese mobile phone market may face multiple price increases within a year for the first time in history in 2026.