Foreign-brand phone shipments to China rose 1.8% in April, CAICT data shows

Foreign-branded smartphone shipments to China, a category dominated by Apple, rose 1.8% year-on-year in April to 3.59 million handsets, according to Reuters calculations based on figures published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the government-run research body that tracks domestic handset shipments.

The number is a meaningful deceleration. Foreign-brand shipments to China grew at a much faster clip through the first quarter, with one read of the CAICT data putting the figure at around 52% year-on-year for the period and Counterpoint Research recording iPhone shipments specifically of 13.1 million units in Q1, up from 9.2 million a year earlier, a rise of roughly 42%. April’s 1.8% rise is therefore the first month since late 2025 in which the foreign-brand category has settled close to flat.

The CAICT data does not break out individual vendors. Apple is by some distance the largest foreign brand in the Chinese smartphone market, and the foreign-brand line item is read by analysts as a useful, if imperfect, proxy for iPhone shipments specifically. Samsung, Sony and a handful of niche brands together account for the rest of the foreign-brand bucket.

The wider Chinese smartphone market is no longer growing. Total shipments fell 3.3% in the first quarter to roughly 69 million units, per IDC, with Huawei reclaiming the top spot for the first time in five years and Apple holding second place.

The two firms together drove most of what little premium-segment growth there was in the quarter, with Huawei’s Mate 80 series and the foldable Pura X performing strongly alongside Apple’s iPhone 17 line. Xiaomi’s shipments collapsed by 35% over the same period.

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The April slowdown for foreign brands has several plausible drivers. Counterpoint and other trackers have pointed to Apple’s relative pricing advantage as memory chip prices have risen, with iPhones avoiding the broad price hikes that hit Xiaomi and Oppo.

That pricing edge concentrated demand into earlier quarters as buyers brought purchases forward. April also marks the start of the seasonal lull before the September iPhone refresh, a period in which year-on-year comparisons tend to compress regardless of underlying demand.

The total Chinese mobile handset market shipped 21.15 million units in March, down 7.1% year-on-year but up 26% month-on-month, with domestic brands accounting for 84% of shipments and foreign brands the balance. April’s 3.59 million foreign-brand units suggests the share split is broadly stable.

The slowdown lands at an awkward moment for Apple in particular. The company has spent the past two years trying to stabilise its China business after a steep 2024 contraction, and Q1 2026 had read, in both IDC and Counterpoint tallies, as evidence that the recovery was real.

Whether April is a single weak month or the start of a flatter trend is the question the next two CAICT releases will answer. May and June numbers, due in late June and late July respectively, will indicate whether the Q1 surge represented a one-off pull-forward or a structural rebound.

Foreign-brand shipments in November 2025 had more than doubled year-on-year on the same CAICT measure, an unusually strong base effect that will continue to compress year-on-year comparisons through the rest of 2026.