As we’re closing out the first month of the second quarter of the year, performance numbers are popping up from market watchers for Q1. We’ve recently seen the crowning of the new Q1 2021 leader earlier today, and now we’re looking at a paradox when it comes to Chinese smartphone vendors.

According to DigiTimes Research, China-based smartphone vendors accounted for a 9.7 percent drop in combined shipments for Q1 2021 to 191 million units. At the same time, the same Chinese vendors paradoxically saw an “on-year increase of 73.8%, with the on-quarter fall also improving significantly from corresponding shrinkages of over 20% seen in pre-pandemic years“, according to the aforementioned source.

Due to the U.S. restrictions imposed on HUAWEI, the Chinese giant saw a steep decline, with companies like OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi rushing to fill in the void.

The three accounted for a total of 129 million smartphones shipped in the first quarter, which represents 67.5 percent of all shipments. That number is up from 58.7 percent in Q4 2020.

HUAWEI shipments plummeted 53.6 percent according to DigiTimes Research for the first quarter of 2021, while the ex-sub-brand, HONOR, went flat in Q1, with no significant moves up or down.