BEIJING: China has shipped a record 117.3 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2015, with sales fuelled in part by the country’s annual online Singles Day shopping festival in November.
The quarter’s shipment was up 8 percent from fourth-quarter 2014, according to the latest figures from research firm IDC, pushing last year’s overall smartphone shipment growth to 3 percent over 2014. It added that the country’s market growth also was driven by strong sales from local smartphone manufacturer, Huawei.
Apart from its strong shipment growth, the quarter saw a change of vendors that led the top three spots in the China market. Tay Xiaohan, IDC’s Asia-Pacific senior market analyst for client devices, noted: “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,” Tay said.
She explained that Xiaomi’s foray came at a time when China’s smartphone market was still growing, enabling the local device maker to capture significant market share with its sales model. The IDC analyst added that Huawei had “strong products”, invested in R&D, and built its branding and channel connections, allowing the Chinese manufacturer to see significant growth in 2015.
