5G smartphones turning more popular in nation

Honor, one of the two signature smartphone brands of Huawei Technologies Co, aims to accelerate the popularity of 5G handsets in China as it expects 5G devices to account for about 70 percent of all smartphones shipped to the nation by the end of this year.

The ambition for the sector came about as Honor managed to maintain growth in the first half of this year despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Zhao Ming, president of Honor, said 5G smartphones have grown rapidly in China. In June, 5G smartphones already accounted for more than 40 percent of all smartphones shipped to the nation.

"The proportion is likely to hit around 70 percent by the end of this year," Zhao said. "Our latest Honor 30 Youth smartphones are designed to fuel the trend."

Priced from 1,699 yuan ($240), the Honor 30 Youth is the latest move by Honor to empower consumers with affordable 5G smartphones.

The Honor 30 Youth sports a 6.5-inch display and a 16 megapixel selfie shooter. In the rear, the handset houses three cameras. It supports 4K video capture and other AI image enhancement algorithms as well.

Honor has so far launched a string of 5G models which cover all price segments from more than 1,000 yuan to above 5,000 yuan. Such ambitious plans came after Honor saw a growing presence in offline retailing while maintaining its edge in e-commerce channels.

Zhao said despite the COVID-19 epidemic, Honor has achieved a strong growth in brick-and-mortar retail stores.

"Consumers who go to offline stores are now fully aware of the advantages of 5G smartphones and they are willing to buy 5G handsets," Zhao said, adding Honor's offline sales have exceeded that of its online retailing channels in the past six months for the first time, contributing to about 55 to 60 percent of its overall shipments.

In April, Huawei overtook Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone maker, thanks to reviving smartphone shipments in China, market research company Counterpoint said in a report.

Huawei accounted for 21 percent of the global smartphone market in April, with Samsung's share standing at 19 percent.

In May, over 15.60 million units of 5G smartphones were shipped out of factories to retailers in China, data from government think tank the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said.

Market research company International Data Corp forecast the China smartphone market will only see a single-digit decline in 2020, as signs of improvement emerged and lockdowns and supply chain disruptions eased.

In comparison, the global smartphone market is forecast to decline by 11.9 percent year-onyear in 2020, with shipments totaling 1.2 billion units, IDC said.

Ryan Reith, program vice-president with IDC's worldwide mobile device trackers, said in a research note that "China's recovery has been impressive to say the least, especially given the initial impact of COVID-19 on the country".

Reith expected even more aggressively priced 5G smartphones than expected prior to the pandemic, which could result in some share wins for vendors that position their portfolios to capitalize on this change.