Huawei faced intense domestic competition in the opening quarter of 2025 from smartphone rival Xiaomi, which moved to the top spot in China’s market, data from IDC showed.

Despite Huawei’s shipments increasing 10 per cent to 12.9 million units and share rising by 1 percentage point to 18 per cent, it fell to second place.

Xiaomi regained first place after nearly a decade, IDC stated, with its shipments growing 39.9 per cent to 13.3 million units. Its market share increased by nearly 5 percentage points to 18.6 per cent.

Oppo and Vivo recorded 3.3 per cent and 2 per cent growth, respectively, and their shares were stable at 15.7 per cent and 14.4 per cent.

Apple’s sales fell 9 per cent to 9.8 million, as its premium pricing prevented it from capitalising on the subsidies, said Will Wong, senior research manager at IDC Asia Pacific. Its share dropped to 13.7 per cent from 15.6 per cent.

Overall market shipments in Q1 increased 3.3 per cent year-on-year to 71.6 million units, aided by government subsidies introduced in January, driving a sixth consecutive quarter of growth.

Rising US-China trade tension and tariff hikes, however, are expected to raise new challenges, such as higher costs and tighter consumer budgets, the research outfit noted.