China’s smartphone market is shrinking for the first time in years

iPhones may be selling like hotcakes in China, but overall demand for smartphones in the world’s biggest market is in fact slowing, according to IDC. Smartphone shipments in China fell by 4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to 98.8 million units – the first contraction year-on-year contraction in six years. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the market shrank 8 percent following a large inventory buildup at the end of last year. “Smartphones are becoming increasingly saturated in China,” said Kitty Fok, managing director at IDC China. “China is oftentimes thought of as an emerging market but the reality is that the vast majority of phones sold in China today are smartphones, similar to other mature markets like the U.S., UK, Australia, and Japan,” she added. Convincing existing users as well as feature phone users to upgrade to new smartphones will now be the key to further growth in the China market, Fok said.