Shipments of APs in the China market are expected to fall 37.8% y-o-y in Q2 due to weak consumer confidence prompting China’s handset makers to work down inventories, reports Digitimes Research.

Q1 AP units in China totalled 135 million – down over 30% from Q4 2019,  down 12.2% from Q1 2019.

Qualcomm was the top vendor with a 41.8% share in China’s smartphone AP market in the first quarter, followed by MediaTek with 39.6% and HiSilicon Technologies with 15.2%.

HiSilicon is expected to see its share edge up to 23.4% in the second quarter, bolstered by strong pull-ins from parent company Huawei.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm and MediaTek are likely to see their shares drop to 37.4% and 36.2%, respectively, in the quarter, Digitimes Research estimates.

Qualcomm and MediaTek are expected to experience double-digit sequential and annual declines in their AP shipments to China in Q2, as their major clients including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo all brace for slow sales in the domestic market due to aggressive campaigns from Huawei.

Smartphone APs built with 7/8 nm process nodes accounted for 34.9% of China’s total mobile AP shipments in the first quarter, surpassing those made with 12nm process to become mainstream technology