There were 178 million handsets shipped in the China market during January-May 2014, decreasing over 70 million units on year. The decrease was mainly because China Mobile shifted marketing resources to promote 4G TD-LTE smartphones and reduced subsidies for 2G and TD-SCDMA (3G) handset purchases, according to Digitimes Research.
The reduced subsidies were a factor in the 77% decline of 2G handsets in China during the time period. Additionally, China Telecom and China Unicom had not yet started 4G commercial operation due to licensing issues, which further pushed down shipments.
However, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued two FD-LTE pilot operation licenses to China Unicom and China Telecom on June 27, 2014 for several cities in China, which will push 4G developments in China as well as increase handset shipments, added Digitimes Research.
Meanwhile, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has announced that mobile Internet users in China reached 527 million as of June 2014.
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.
