The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) has released its latest report on mobile phone shipments in China, covering April and the first four months of 2026. Here are the details.
Apple set to benefit from market-wide recovery.
Reuters reports that CAICT has released updated figures on phone shipments in the Chinese market.
The report compares year-over-year performance for April and the January-to-April period.
According to CAICT, phone shipments in China reached 25.7 million units in April, up 2.8% year-on-year. Domestic brands accounted for the bulk of this, with 22.1 million units shipped (86.1% of total shipments), up 2.9% from April 2025, while foreign brands shipped only 3.59 million units.
As Reuters pointed out, this means that “foreign-branded mobile phones in China in April, including Apple iPhones, increased 1.8% compared to the same month last year.”
Looking specifically at smartphones, the report notes that shipments reached 25 million units in April, an increase of 12.3% year-over-year and 97.3% of total phone shipments.
From January to April, China’s domestic phone market shipped 86.5 million units, down 8.6% year-on-year.
Smartphones saw a 5.5% year-over-year decline to 82 million units, accounting for 94.8% of total phones shipped.
The CAICT report also notes that the number of new models declined, with 138 new mobile phone models between January and April, down 15.3% from the previous year; of these, 115 (83.3%) were smartphones, down 0.9% year-on-year.
9to5Mac’s point of view
Today’s report is largely in line with what other sources, including Counterpoint Research, have said about the broader smartphone market amid growing pricing pressure from industry-wide memory shortages.
In recent months, several analysts have noted that low-end phones are more exposed to this pressure, as they typically generate lower margins than mid-range and high-end smartphones. Samsung, for example, has had to increase prices on several models, while Apple has so far kept iPhone prices unchanged.
This could help explain the slowdown in demand observed in China between January and April.
That said, it is interesting to see demand pick up in April. Looking specifically at Apple, in the quarter ended March 28, the company reported a 28% year-over-year increase in revenue in Greater China, following a 38% increase in the first quarter of 2026, as iPhone sales in the region continued to recover.
Since the CAICT report does not break down shipments beyond overall totals and national brands, it remains to be seen how April’s increase will affect iPhone sales performance.
But if Apple manages to hold on even amid the broader first-quarter crisis, China could once again be among the bright spots in the company’s third-quarter 2026 earnings report, expected in late July or early August.
You can read the full CAICT report here.
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