Institutional report: Global smartphone shipments fell 6% in Q1; one Chinese company grew 25% against the trend

Market snapshot

An industry report found global smartphone shipments fell about 6% in the first quarter as demand softened and inventories were worked down. At the same time it has been reported that one Chinese vendor bucked the trend, growing shipments by roughly 25% in the period. The divergence underscores a broader shift: traditional smartphone cycles are cooling even as a new wave of AI-enabled wearables and adjunct devices attracts attention and early buyers.

The Chinese contender: Qianwen (千问)

The company cited in the coverage is Qianwen (千问), reportedly linked to Alibaba. Qianwen has pushed into flagship AI eyewear with products such as the S1 and the consumer-facing G1. The devices support screen display, a 12-megapixel camera, hot-swappable batteries and have been rebuilt at the system level for always-on AI services. It has been reported that Qianwen’s G1, after launching in March, grabbed more than 70% of the online AI glasses market in its first week following an OTA upgrade that added payment and transport features — for example, scanning a shared-bike QR code and saying “I want to pay” to unlock a ride without taking out a phone.

Bigger picture and geopolitics

Why does this matter to Western readers? Because the smartphone slowdown is playing out against shifting supply chains and persistent geopolitical headwinds — export controls, chip restrictions and trade tensions between the U.S. and China are reshaping which devices vendors can sell and where they source parts. Meanwhile, AI-capable wearables are becoming a new battleground. Meta’s annual shipments of smart glasses approach the millions, and Huawei (华为) and Apple (苹果) have both been linked to plans to enter the space, though neither has launched a mass-market AI glasses product yet. Reportedly, the AI glasses segment is growing many times faster than legacy smart glasses categories, giving nimble Chinese startups an opening.

What to watch

Can AI eyewear scale beyond early adopters and offset weakness in phones? Will regulators and trade policy shape which vendors thrive internationally? The coming quarters will show whether the 25% gains reported for Qianwen are an anomaly or an early signal that the consumer-device market is fragmenting around AI services rather than raw smartphone replacement cycles.