IT Hardware and Communications Equipment: April MIIT Data Update; Overall and iPhone Units Growing After a Down Q1

Research evidence excerpt

IT Hardware and Communications Equipment: April MIIT Data Update; Overall and iPhone Units Growing After a Down Q1

Equity Research

IT Hardware and Communications Equipment

26 May 2026

April MIIT Data Update; Overall

and iPhone Units Growing After a

IT Hardware and CommunicationsDown Q1 Equipment

Implied iPhone units improve this month (up 9% m/m and NEUTRAL

11% y/y), which we believe is being driven by promotions. IT Hardware and Communications

Equipment

Android units also saw improvements, though we continue to Tim Long

expect the low-end to be under more pressure by rising +1 212 526 4043

tim.long@barclays.com

memory costs this year. BCI, US

Alyssa Shreves

Based on our analysis of China smartphone unit shipment "sell-in" data (MIIT), implied iPhone +1 212 526 7570

shipments increased this month, with April monthly up ~0.3M units (growth of 9% M/M and 11% alyssa.shreves@barclays.com

BCI, USY/Y). This is the second month of improvement in implied iPhone units post the previous three

months of decline since December 2025. Total handset shipments in April also improved on a Mary Lenox

y/y basis after a few declining months (up 3% y/y) and up sequentially as well (up 22%). 5G +1 212 526 6277

shipments improved meaningfully in April with y/y growth of 24% and sequential growth of mary.lenox@barclays.com

BCI, US26%. Android units also saw improvement for the first time after a few months since November

last year, growing 12% y/y. Clarisse Yu

+1 212 526 7025

This data suggests that iPhone market share stands at 13% for April, still in the low-teens range xueqian.yu@barclays.com

since December 2025 and much lower than previous levels around October last year (October BCI, US

was 20%, November 21%). We believe AAPL may be a short-term beneficiary of the higher