Q1 smartphone shipments in China fall below 100m

Smartphone shipments in China fell below 100 million in the first quarter of this year, the first time this has happened since the third quarter of 2013, a report showed.

China was the biggest driver of the global smartphone shipment decline in the first quarter, which saw a 2.9 percent year-on-year drop to 334.3 million units worldwide, according to preliminary data from global market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

“Globally, as well as in China, a key bellwether, smartphone consumers are trading up to more premium devices, but there are no longer as many new smartphone converts, resulting in shipments dropping,” said Melissa Chau, associate research director with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.

China has more mobile internet users than any other country; their number reached 753 million by the end of 2017.

Shenzhen-based telecom giant Huawei’s global market share ranked third in the first quarter after Samsung and Apple, followed by China’s Xiaomi and OPPO, the report showed.

The three Chinese smartphone makers all saw their overseas sales further expand in the first quarter, especially in Western Europe, India and Southeast Asia.

Samsung remained the leader in the worldwide smartphone market, grabbing a 23.4 percent share, even though the South Korean company experienced a 2.4 percent decline in market share from the first quarter of 2017, IDC said.