Smartphone shipments slip, Chinese brands lose ground

Vivo’s shipments dropped 34% to 6.4 million — the sharpest decline among the top five. Repeated price increases disrupted retailers’ inventory planning, while limited supplies of entry-level phones weakened its position. Xiaomi’s traditional appeal of offering more features for the money also came under pressure. Rising component costs forced trade-offs on pricing and memory configurations, with shipments falling 28% to 4.7 million.