Observing China's mobile market in 2016, Digitimes Research expects smartphone AP price competition to grow fiercer, while Qualcomm and MediaTek will continue to push Internet of Things (IoT) to seek new business opportunities.
Second- and third-tier AP suppliers are expected to experience a wave of mergers and acquisitions as smartphone demand continues to weaken. As for 5G network roll-outs in China, Tsinghua Unigroup's lineup in the semiconductor industry supply chain and Huawei, which has been chosen by the China government as the pioneer of 5G network standards, have both been certified to operate 5G network technologies in outdoor areas.
Digitimes Research found that China's smartphone market was able to maintain strong shipment growth in 2015 mainly due to handset replacement due to 4G LTE network deployments. In the third quarter of 2015, China's 4G handsets already account for 87% of the country's overall handset shipments, growing significantly by 42pp from the same period a year ago.
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