China hits highest smartphone shipment ever of 117.3M in Q4

Not less than 117.3 million Smartphone’s were shipped by Chinese Smartphone makers in the fourth quarter of 2015, the latest figures from research firm, International Data Corporation clearly shows.

The sales is said to have accrued partly, as a result of China’s annual single day online shopping festival on November 11 2015, hosted by Alibaba and other Chinese e-commerce companies. Shoppers were said to have spent more than $96bn in the first 12hrs of the sales, topping the previous year’s total for the world’s biggest online shopping day.

Huawei’s strong shipments in the quarter is said to have also contributed to this growth. China’s 2015Q4 growth boosted the calendar year 2015 growth to 3 percent YoY. This growth has brought a significant change in the top three vendors.

Tay Xiaohan, Senior Market Analyst with IDC Asia/Pacific’s Client Devices team, 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.”

Referring to Apple, the IDC analyst said the iPhone maker remained a “strong and desirable brand” among 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,” Tay added.

According to IDC, Huawei saw the biggest gains in average selling prices (ASPs) and shipment growth, with more flagship products and higher shipments in the US$200 to US$500 price range. This had affected Samsung’s shipments in the mid-range and high-end device segments.

With consumers looking for better user experience in their next device, the research firm said vendors would have to move upstream to address the needs of these users. And as market growth was expected to be flat in 2016, with the maturing of China’s market, this might lead to consolidation among smaller smartphone vendors, IDC noted.

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.

More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide.

 

OMOBOLAJI DAVID-OJUMU