The China Academy of Information and Communications Technologyreleased a report on the domestic smartphone market performance in May 2025, revealing a significant decline in shipments. Last month, smartphone shipments totaled 23.716 million units, down 21.8% year-on-year. Among them, 21.19 million units were 5G-capable devices, marking a 17% decrease and accounting for 89.3% of total shipments.
While the market had maintained modest growth in the first four months of the year with a 3.5% YoY increase, May's sharp contraction dragged the cumulative growth rate into negative territory. From January to May, domestic smartphone shipments reached 118 million units, down 2.8% YoY, including 102 million 5G phones (down 0.1% YoY), representing 86.2% of total shipments.
The decline may be closely linked to reduced new product launches. In May, only 39 new smartphone models were released in China, a 23.5% YoY drop, with just 13 being 5G models—down 55.2% YoY—making up 33.3% of new releases.
In the first five months of 2025, 202 new smartphone models entered the market, up 7.4% YoY, though 5G models fell 11.2% to 95 units, constituting 47% of total new releases.