Chinese smartphone market shrinks for the first time in six years

Smartphone sales in China fell 4.3% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. The Chinese smartphone market has shrunk for the first time in six years. Just under 100 million phones were sold in the past quarter.

That writes the American market research firm IDC on its site on Monday. Among the reasons for the decline, the agency says that China has long ceased to be an emerging market and that the market is comparable to that of the United States, Australia or Japan, where more than 90 percent of the market owns a smartphone. It is now a matter of convincing both the last dumbphone owners and smartphone owners to upgrade to a new smartphone.

Apple did best in the first quarter with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, knocking Xiaomi off the throne. Xiaomi suffered from strong competition from other providers in the low and mid-range segment. Huawei retained the third position, ahead of Samsung and Lenovo.

IDC expects further slowing growth and increasing competition in the high and mid-market for the rest of the year, as Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi also focus more on this. The agency also thinks that more and more Chinese brands will profile themselves in other Southeast Asian markets and India.