China's smartphone, tablet sales remain buoyant in second quarter
Demand for the electronic devices remains buoyant, with second-quarter spending rising by 47pc year on year
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.