Apple hardest hit as China’s smartphone shipments fall 14 per cent to 396 million in 2018
- Apple recorded a 13 per cent year-on-year drop in smartphone units shipped to China last year, according to Canalys
- Economic slowdown and sluggish consumer spending resulted in slower sales last year
China’s economic slowdown and consumers pulling back on spending have taken a toll on its smartphone industry, with shipments to the world’s largest phone market retreating to the level before 2014, according to an industry report from research firm Canalys.
Global smartphone makers shipped about 396 million phones to mainland China last year, down 14 per cent from the previous year’s 459 million units, according to the report.
The decline, which Canalys described as “the most dramatic in history”, brought the annual shipment figure down to the period before 2014, when it surpassed 400 million.
It came as China’s economy grew at its lowest rate of 6.6 per cent in 28 years last year, even as its absolute size expanded considerably.
The country’s retail sales, in tandem, scaled back to 9 per cent from 9.4 per cent in 2017, while growth of sales in telecom equipment including smartphones slowed to 7.1 per cent from 11.7 per cent a year earlier, according to data from National Bureau of Statistics.
Canalys has estimated that smartphone shipments to China will continue to fall by 3.5 per cent this year to 385 million, as competition rises among global manufacturers to vie for a bigger share of the vast but saturating Chinese market, which is moving towards more high-end products. Many domestic makers are also preparing to launch their first smartphones with 5G networks this year.