Huawei bucked a downward trend in China’s decimated smartphone market in Q1, with the vendor the only top-five player to record an increase in sales (up 6 per cent year-on-year), data from Counterpoint Research showed.

China’s smartphone sales fell 22 per cent due to the country’s lockdown measures in response to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The research company said the decline in March wasn’t as steep as a 35 per cent fall in February, as it estimated the proportion of online sales surged to more than 50 per cent in the quarter from about 30 per cent in Q1 2019.

It expects the percentage to likely drop when the pandemic is contained.

Huawei’s market share rose to 40 per cent, while Apple also gained share despite a 1 per cent drop in sales. Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi suffered sales declines of 27 per cent, 30 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

The top five vendors accounted for 93 per cent of the market, up 6 percentage points.

Counterpoint Research said the number of 5G smartphones sold more than doubled sequentially, accounting for 15 per cent of the total market.