China smartphone shipments rebound

Source: Xinhua | 2018-07-30

SMARTPHONE shipments in China bounced back to above 100 million units in the second quarter of 2018 after a marked decline in the first quarter, a new industry report showed.

The recovery provides much-needed relief to vendors and channel partners after shipments fell by more than 20 percent to 91 million units in the first quarter, according to the report by tech industry analysis firm Canalys. On a yearly basis, the market has shown signs of improvement as the rate of decline eased from 22 percent in the first quarter to 8 percent in the second.

Huawei, including its sub-brand Honor, saw its market share grow to a record 27 percent, the biggest for any smartphone vendors in China since the second quarter of 2011. Canalys noted that smaller vendors are finding it tougher to compete, as the top five vendors now account for 90 percent of shipments.

“The market is expected to decline in the following quarters, mainly owing to harsh declines in shipments from smaller vendors,” said Canalys analyst Mo Jia.