Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) on October 21 shows that China’s domestic mobile phone shipments reached 21.856 million units in September 2026, down 21.7% year-on-year. Among them, 5G mobile phone shipments stood at 19.234 million units, a year-on-year decline of 20.2%, accounting for 88.0% of total mobile phone shipments for the month.
From January to September 2026, domestic mobile phone shipments totalled 189 million units, falling 14.1% year-on-year. Shipments of 5G mobile phones hit 171 million units, down 8.7% year-on-year and making up 90.6% of the total.
