Huawei regains top spot in China’s smartphone market after four years

According to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), HUAWEI is on top of China’s smartphone market. This is the first time that the company has done so since 2020.

The tech giant captured 18% of the market in Q2 2025, outperforming rivals like vivo and OPPO, which saw declines. Huawei’s rise came despite an overall 4% drop in China smartphone shipments, totalling 69 million units.

The company’s comeback follows years of US trade sanctions that forced it to build its own chipsets and software. In addition, Huawei launched a series of smartphones last year powered by its in-house AI chips and operating system.

This marked a shift away from Android and introduced the world’s first commercially available tri-fold smartphone. IDC added that this quarter marked the first year-on-year decline in China’s smartphone shipments after six quarters of growth.

The slowdown is being attributed to reduced government subsidies and ongoing economic uncertainty. Arthur Guo, Senior Research Analyst at IDC China had this to say:

‘Despite the recent US-China trade truce, the broader economic environment presents ongoing challenges, with consumer confidence remaining subdued,’ He also added that ‘a significant uplift in smartphone demand is unlikely in the immediate term’.