(Yicai) Oct. 31 -- China’s smartphone market has begun to pick up steam after the launch of new products by Apple and Huawei Technologies and is likely to achieve annual growth this quarter and go on expanding in the first half of next year, according to a senior analyst at market researcher IDC.

Consumer attention and popularity in China’s smartphone market will continue to increase, boosted by promotions during the Spring Festival around January to February and e-commerce shopping festivals in the second quarter of next year, Guo Tianxiang told Yicai yesterday.

The market is likely to expand further year on year in the first six months of 2024, but IDC remains cautious about the full year’s prospects, Guo noted.

As a new replacement cycle begins, major handset makers have released very competitive new products that will drive the Chinese market toward a turning point this quarter, rebounding for the first time in nearly 10 quarters, according to a report IDC released on Oct. 27.

Smartphone shipments in China fell 6.3 percent to 67.1 million units in the third quarter from a year earlier. But with the launch of several new products since August, the market has picked up, with consumer attention on phones significantly higher than in the first half, the report said.

Industry giants Apple and Huawei have spearheaded the recovery in the smartphone market this time round. Apple launched its new generation of the iPhones in the middle of last month after Shenzhen-based Huawei debuted its flagship Mate 60 series at the end of August. 

The Mate 60 has done well, selling 1.6 million units in the six weeks after its launch, data from market researcher Counterpoint showed. In comparison, in the 17 days after launching in China, iPhone 15 sales were 4.5 percent lower than for the same period of the iPhone 14 a year earlier.

During separate launch events today, Apple released the M3 chip series and a new MacBook Pro, while Huawei debuted a new handset model, the Nova 11 SE. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev