China's smartphone, tablet sales remain buoyant in second quarter

While fears of a slowdown lingered, consumers on the mainland spent a total of 157.77 billion yuan (HK$200 billion) on smartphones, media tablets and laptop personal computers in the second quarter - purchasing a combined 92.37 million units.

That marked a 47 per cent increase from 107.24 billion yuan in total expenditure a year earlier and an 88 per cent improvement over the 49.21 million units sold during the same period last year, according to the latest retail sales audit by market research company GfK.

Alfred Zhou, managing director at GfK Retail and Technology China, said smartphones and tablets both recorded positive sales growth last quarter, which resulted in a decline in demand for laptop computers.

Smartphone sales rose 66 per cent year on year to 126.09 billion yuan, while total shipments climbed 103 per cent to 82.86 million units.

"Low prices of domestic brands and the competitive handset subsidies offered by the mainland's mobile network operators helped drive strong smartphone demand in the second quarter," Zhou said. "Smartphone models that cost below 1,000 yuan each were the most popular, accounting for 49 per cent of the total units sold in this market segment last quarter."

The top-five smartphone suppliers on the mainland last quarter were Samsung Electronics, Lenovo, Coolpad-maker Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen), ZTE and Huawei Technologies, according to technology research firm IDC. Yulong is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed China Wireless Technologies.

Zhou said the increased availability of low-cost, 3G-mobile-ready tablets at various consumer electronics chain stores on the mainland spurred the increase in domestic sales.

Tablet sales increased 60 per cent year on year to 8.73 billion yuan, while total shipments grew 72 per cent to 3.98 million units.

Apple remained the mainland's No1 tablet supplier, despite stiff competition from various brands offering tablets that run Google's Android operating system, according to IDC. The other leading tablet suppliers last quarter were Samsung, Lenovo, Asus and Acer.

Laptop computer sales on the mainland fell 12 per cent year on year to 22.95 billion yuan in the second quarter, as shipments decreased 10 per cent to 5.53 million units. Zhou said the most popular range of laptop prices were between 3,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan, which made up 40 per cent of the market segment last quarter.

Lenovo, the world's largest supplier of personal computers, still leads the laptop market, IDC said. It was followed by Asus, Acer, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.