Sales of smartphones by local brands in China are expected to rebound starting the second half of third-quarter 2014 after seeing their sales drop by nearly 30% sequentially in second-quarter 2014,according to Digitimes Research.
Although subsidies for the purchase of smartphones in China have shifted to 4G models, the number of new 4G subscribers increased only eight million in the first five months of 2014, which were lower than expectations.
Digitimes Research found that smartphone shipments from Coolpad began to show stagnation in the second half of May, Lenovo saw its inventories of entry-level models build up, while Xiaomi Technology, Oppo, Vivo and Gionee did not launch new 4G models to boost sales in the second quarter.
However, export shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors grew 15-20% sequentially in the second quarter, with emerging countries in Southeast Asia serving as the major outlets for China's smartphones.
Local brands are expected to launch an array of new 4G models in the second half of 2014 in order to help China Mobile fulfill its goal of selling 80 million 4G smartphones in 2014. As a result, the smartphone market in China will rebound quickly starting the second half of third-quarter 2014.
Overall, smartphone shipments by China-based vendors are expected to top 400 million in 2014, with exports accounting for over 30% of total shipments, estimates Digitimes Research.
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