The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) has released its latest report on mobile phone shipments in China, covering April as well as the first four months of 2026. Details are given here.
Apple likely to benefit from market-wide recovery
as seen reutersCAICT has released updated numbers on phone shipments to the Chinese market.
The report compares year-on-year performance for the month of April as well as the January to April period.
According to CAICT, phone shipments in China reached 25.7 million units in April, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year. Domestic brands accounted for 22.1 million shipped units (86.1% of total shipments), up 2.9% from April 2025, with foreign brands seeing only 3.59 million shipped units.
As Reuters reported, this meant that “Foreign brand mobile phones in China for April, including Apple’s iPhones, were 1.8% higher than the same month last year.”
When it comes to smartphones specifically, the report said shipments in April reached 25 million units, up 12.3% year-on-year and accounting for 97.3% of total phone shipments.
Looking at the period from January to April, China’s domestic phone market reached 86.5 million shipped units, down 8.6% year on year.
Smartphones saw a 5.5% year-on-year decline to 82 million units and 94.8% of total phones shipped.
The CAICT report also shows that the number of new models also declined, with 138 new mobile phone models between January and April, down 15.3% from a year earlier, of which 115 (or, 83.3%) were smartphones, down 0.9% year-on-year.
9to5Mac’s take
Today’s report is largely in line with what other sources, including Counterpoint Research, are saying about the broader smartphone market amid growing pricing pressure due to memory shortages across the industry.
Over the past few months, many analysts have observed that lower-end phones are more sensitive to that pressure, as they typically have lower margins than mid-range and high-end smartphones. For example, Samsung has had to increase the prices of several models, while Apple has kept iPhone prices unchanged so far.
This may help explain the slowdown in demand seen in China in the January to April period.
“It is interesting to see demand picking up again in April,” he said. When it comes to Apple specifically, in the quarter ending March 28, the company reported growth of 28% year-over-year Greater China’s revenue growthiPhone sales in the region continued to improve, following a 38% increase in the first quarter of 2026.
Because the CAICT report doesn’t break out shipments beyond overall and domestic brand shipments, it remains to be seen how the April increase will reflect on iPhone sales performance.
But if Apple manages to hold its own even during the broader Q1 slowdown, China could once again be one of the bright spots in the company’s Q3 2026 earnings report, likely to be released in late July or early August.
You can read the full CAICT report Here.
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