China rings up US$32.4b sales of smartphones in second quarter

Smartphone sales in China, the world’s largest market for these devices, surged to US$32.4 billion in the second quarter of this year on higher demand from the country’s vast rural areas.

That amount represented a 24 per cent increase from US$26.9 billion in the same period last year, but fell short of the record quarterly high of US$33.5 billion posted in the three months to December last year, according to data released on Friday by GfK.

The global market research firm raised its total sales forecast for the mainland to US$132.1 billion this year, up from its US$120.4 billion estimate in March.

Kevin Walsh, the director of trends and forecasting at the Nuremberg, Germany-based GfK, said local smartphone brands are the biggest beneficiaries of the sales resurgence in the Chinese mainland.

“We need to look beyond sales in the major cities and the shipments of global manufacturers to reveal this strong growth – since it is consumers in rural areas who are driving this demand,” Walsh said.

GfK forecasts are based on consumer purchases rather than manufacturer shipments, so supplier rankings are typically provided by other organisations.