Shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors declined by nearly 30% sequentially to 91.8 million units in the first quarter of 2015 due to sluggish demand both at home and overseas, as well as reduced production affected by the traditional Lunar New Year holidays, according to Digitimes Research.
Vendors which have a high ratio of export sales saw their shipments decline by over 40% sequentially in the first quarter, and those which focus more on the domestic market suffered declines ranging from 20-25%, Digitimes Research has found.
Huawei's shipments were less affected by market factors, reaching 13.5 million units in the first quarter and making the company the number vendor in the quarter. Xiaomi came in second with shipments totaling 10 million units as it lowered the prices of some old models to boost sales.
Meanwhile,TCL saw its shipments drop to nine million units affected by slacked overseas demand. Lenovo's shipments were far weaker than expected in the first quarter due to a high level of inventories left over from the previous quarter.
China-based vendors are expected to see their smartphone shipments grow 20-25% sequentially to 110 million units in the second quarter of 2015 as vendors will launch new mainstream models to ramp up sales, Digitimes Research estimates.
