Guests test Huawei Pura 80 series smartphones during a launching event in Bucharest, Romania, Aug. 26, 2025. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- China's mobile phone market scale hit a record high of over one trillion yuan (about 144.08 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025. Mobile phone manufacturers have tapped into market demand, explored technological innovations, and further refined the industry ecosystem for high-quality development.
-- Product competitiveness continues to rise
HONOR, a Chinese consumer electronics company, unveiled three new products and its performance for the year 2025 in Guangzhou and Zhuhai of south China's Guangdong Province on January 19, with its annual mobile phone shipments exceeding 71 million units for the first time, a year-on-year increase of nine percent.
From January to November 2025, China's mobile phone shipments in the domestic market reached 282 million units, up 0.9 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). Among them, 5G phone shipments totaled 244 million units, up 1.3 percent. A total of 474 new models were launched, with a year-on-year increase of 14.5 percent.
Meanwhile, smartphone penetration in China has exceeded 80 percent. As users extend their replacement cycles, the market is shifting from incremental competition to competition within the existing stock, said Wang Peng, associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences (BASS).
Against this backdrop, innovation has become the key to breakthroughs. Huawei released the industry's first wide-foldable phone, Huawei Pura X, in March 2025. Competition in foldable phones is heating up, with manufacturers busy optimizing hinges, screens, thinness, and software. According to institutional estimates, China's foldable phone shipments will reach 9.47 million units in 2025, up 3.3 percent year-on-year.
Moreover, satellite communication, exterior design, battery life, and imaging systems have become key differentiators in the market. For instance, OPPO Find X9 Pro supports eSIM services, while Vivo debuted the second-generation semi-solid-state battery technology.
-- AI reshapes user experience
The Doubao AI smartphone, jointly launched by ByteDance and ZTE in December 2025, showcased new scenarios for intelligent interaction. AI smartphones are evolving from a "digital hub" to an "intelligent hub", said Cui Li, Chief Development Officer of ZTE.
The integration of AI and mobile phones has become a priority for the industry. Huawei's HarmonyOS 6 has upgraded its AI agent Celia into a unified entry for intelligent services with cross-app operational capabilities. Honor Magic8 Pro utilizes its AI agent YOYO and the E10 motion engine to achieve behavior prediction and proactive service. AI is evolving from an add-on feature to a foundational capability.
Apart from mobile phone manufacturers, Zhipu, a Chinese AI company recently open-sourced the AutoGLM, an AI agent model capable of operating mobile phones, aiming to lower the technical threshold and build an open and collaborative AI smartphone ecosystem. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that China's AI phone shipments will exceed 118 million units in 2025, accounting for 40.7 percent of the total market.
-- Market enters a period of adjustment
The year 2026 is regarded as a pivotal year for China's mobile phone market to tackle challenges and redefine its value. Overall shipments may decline due to rising costs for components such as memory chips. However, the high-end market will continue to expand through innovation, while the share of the low-end market gradually shrinks, noted Guo Tianxiang, a research manager at IDC.
Besides, smartphones priced above 600 U.S. dollars in China will capture a market share of 35.9 percent in 2026, up 5.4 percentage points, while the share of those below 200 U.S. dollars will drop by 4.3 percentage points, according to IDC forecasts.
Furthermore, emotional value brought by design aesthetics and brand connection is influencing purchase decisions alongside technical performance. Manufacturers are strengthening emotional bonds with users and stimulating consumption through new form factors, differentiated designs, and cross-brand collaborations.
(Edited by Yang Linlin with Xinhua Silk Road, linlinyanglyn@163.com)
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