According to new information from International Data Corporation (IDC), 117.3 million smartphones were shipped to China in the fourth quarter of 2015.
This is an 8% Year-Over-Year (YoY) growth vs the same period last year, partly driven by China’s annual singles day online shopping festival in November and Huawei’s strong shipments in the quarter.
China’s Q4 of 2015 growth boosted the calendar year 2015 growth to 3% YoY, IDC says.
“Xiaomi, Huawei and Apple are the top smartphone players in 2015. This is a stark contrast to the top players in 2013, which was Samsung, Lenovo and Coolpad – with Samsung clearly dominating other players. With operators reducing smartphone subsidy and given the volatility of consumers’ brand preference in the market, the smartphone scene has changed significantly since then,” says Tay Xiaohan, Senior Market Analyst with IDC Asia/Pacific’s Client Devices team.
“Xiaomi entered the market at a time when the China smartphone market was still growing, and was able to capture a significant market share with its disruptive sales model. Huawei, with its investments in R&D, strong products, branding and channel connections, saw it having significant growth in 2015. Apple, on the other hand, continues to be a strong and desirable brand in the eyes of the Chinese consumers. With the Chinese market now slowing down, it is unlikely that we will see any new players making a big impact on the smartphone market compared to the way Xiaomi did in the previous years,” adds Tay.
To read more from IDC, click here.
