\tChinese smartphone shipments dropped by more than 50 million units in 2018, as a run of quarterly declines continued in the final three months of the year, Strategy Analytics figures show.<\/p>\n
Senior analyst Yiwen Wu said the market in China is in recession due to longer replacement cycles and weak consumer spending. Shipments in Q4 2018 fell 11 per cent year-on-year to 107.9 million units, and were also down 11 per cent for the full year to 408.5 million.<\/p>\n
Of the leading five vendors, only Huawei and Vivo made gains in 2018 (see chart, below, click to enlarge).<\/p>\n
[1]\n
Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics, stated Vivo is “very close to overtaking” second-placed Oppo, which is feeling the heat from Huawei in the mid-tier smartphone segment and “offline retail channels across major cities”.<\/p>\n
The research company noted Apple overtook Xiaomi during Q4 2018, but is still well behind its Chinese rival in terms of full year shipments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOngoing patent battles with Qualcomm are a distraction, while Apple is being heavily criticised for its expensive retail prices. Apple is in danger of pricing the iPhone out of China,\u201d Oh said.<\/p>\n
Outside the top five vendors, shipments by vendors in the ‘others’ category fell more than 50 per cent in 2018.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the month the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released figures showing 2018 shipments fell 15.3 per cent [2] year-on-year to 391 million units.<\/p>\n[1] https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/China-2018-SA.png
\n[2] https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/devices\/news-devices\/china-smartphone-market-falls-again-in-2018\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese smartphone shipments dropped by more than 50 million units in 2018, as a run …<\/p>\n
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