China's smartphone market sees biggest slump in five years

[midian182]

China, the world’s largest smartphone market, saw handset shipments suffer their biggest decline ever during the last quarter, according to a new report from market research firm Canalys.

Compared to the same period last year, shipments were down 21 percent during the first three months of the year, with Chinese consumers buying 91 million devices. Q1 2018 was the first time since the fourth quarter of 2013 that shipments failed to reach or pass 100 million units.

While a decline had been expected, analysts were surprised by its size. “Eight of the top 10 smartphone vendors were hit by annual declines, with Gionee, Meizu and Samsung shrinking to less than half of their respective Q1 2017 numbers,” the report read.

The reason behind the slump could be something we're familiar with in the West: a lack of variation among new phones and too many ad campaigns. “The level of competition has forced every vendor to imitate the others’ product portfolios and go-to-market strategies,” said Canalys research analyst Mo Jia

Despite posting yet another record quarter, Samsung has issued warnings about a stagnating smartphone market. It sold just 2 million devices in China during Q1. Apple also struggled, falling down to fifth place in terms of total number of shipments. The top four companies— Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi—made up 73 percent of all shipments in the country for the quarter.

Xiaomi, which overtook Apple into fourth place, was one of the brighter spots. Its shipments were up 37 percent YoY to 12 million units, though supply problems did mean it had a poor Q1 2017. Huawei, the top phone company in China, also grew, albeit by only 2 percent.

Canalys predicts that the second quarter of the year will see growth, thanks to new flagships from Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei, but believes there will be an overall decline during 2018.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74352-china-smartphone-market-sees-biggest-slump-five-years.html

 

[OutlawCecil]

Oppo (OnePlus) and Xiaomi are great companies. I've been impressed with products of all types with those brands.

 

[p51d007]

USA user here. I've had 3 Huawei Mate phones. 2,8,9 Love em! But, the way the government
has pulled the rug off Huawei (who DOESN'T SPY?), and how they are starting to treat ZTE,
they may just pull out of the U.S. market, and, the government here could just say to the carriers
do not allow brand XYZ to work on the network...or else we'll pull your licenses, which would make
a lot of phones useless in the USA. Just as the glut of smartphone types MIGHT start bringing
the price down, and the design/features of phones, along with phones the past couple years are
"good enough" for 99% of the users, now we might have less types to choose from in the USA,
keeping the Apple/Samsung prices inflated.

 

[VitalyT]

Beside the natural market saturation, which plays the important part, more people realize the importance of the phone in their daily life, and opt to pay more for premium, high-quality phones. This is why Apple's excrement still stays afloat.

 

[Nobina]

Beside the natural market saturation, which plays the important part, more people realize the importance of the phone in their daily life, and opt to pay more for premium, high-quality phones. This is why Apple's excrement still stays afloat.

Is the Apple quality meme ever going to die?