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Digitimes Research: China smartphone shipments drop 8.8% sequentially in 4Q14

Kristina Shih, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors declined 8.8% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2014, affected by weaker than expected sales for some brand vendors, according to Digitimes Research.

For the first quarter of 2015, China's overall smartphone shipments are expected to suffer a further sequential drop of over 20% due to the impact of seasonality in overseas markets. As a result, vendors which have a high ratio of export sales, may suffer a decline of over 30% sequentially in the quarter.

Huawei shipped 16.7 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2014, recapturing the number one handset vendor title in the quarter, followed by TCL with shipments of 14.1 million units, while Lenovo and Xiaomi Technology co-shared the third title each shipping 13.8 million units.

Meanwhile, ZTE saw its shipments decline over 15% in the fourth quarter of 2014, affected by its falling brand image and mounting competition from rival vendors including TCL and Huawei.

Although Oppo has made headways in Southeast Asia, its shipments sank 7.2% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2014 due to sluggish demand in the domestic market, which accounted for 80% of its total shipments, Digitimes Research noted.

Content from this article was part of a complete Digitimes Research Chinese-language report that has not yet been translated into English. If you are interested in an English version of the report or wish to receive more information about the report, click here to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Digitimes Research also provides quarterly tracking services for market sectors such as China Smartphone, China Smartphone AP, Taiwan ICT and Taiwan FPD. Click here for more information about Digitimes Research Tracking services.