China’s smartphone sale fell to their lowest level in a decade driven by macroeconomic downside and Covid-19.

According to latest report from market research firm Counterpoint , smartphone shipments in China fell 14% in 2022, representing their fifth consecutive year of decline.

Honor was the only brand to have positive year-on-year growth in 2022, the former budget smartphone brand of Huawei booked 38% year-on-year in sale for 2022 due to a lower base in 2021, when the brand had started its resurgence in the Chinese market.

Apple declined 3% YoY in 2022 while it took second spot in China for the first time for a full year.

Apple shipped 72.3 million iPhones globally in the fourth quarter, down 14.9% year on year, according to IDC. Apple faced a number of supply chain issues in the December quarter of 2022 after the world’s biggest iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, China, was hit with a Covid outbreak.

Oppo and Vivo, owned by Dongguan-based consumer electronics manufacturers BBK Electronic Corporation, saw their sale down 27% and 23% respectively in 2022.

Beijing-based Xiaomi also booked double-digit YoY sales declines.

In the fourth quarter 2022, China’s smartphone sales declined 15% year-on-year. China’s smartphone sale decline came against the backdrop that global smartphone shipments plunged at the same time.

Global smartphone shipments totaled 300.3 million smartphones in the October to December quarter, an 18.3% year-over-year fall, according to IDC. 

A total of 1.21 billion smartphones were shipped in 2022, which represents the lowest annual shipment total since 2013, IDC data showed.