Smartphone shipments by China-based handset vendors totaled 114.3 million units in the second quarter of 2015, up 18.4% sequentially and 7.4% on year, according to the latest data compiled by Digitimes Research.
The pace of rebound in the second quarter was slower than expected due to an increasingly mature domestic market and decreased orders from emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil which have affected shipments of independent design houses and ODMs.
While the number of 4G subscribers increased significantly in the second quarter, growth in the total number of smartphone subscribers was limited as most mobile phone users were simply switching from 3G to 4G services, said Digitimes Research.
Huawei Device, Xiaomi Technology and BBK Electronics, which operates smartphone brands Oppo and Vivo, were the top three local smartphone vendors in China in the second quarter, each shipping over 10 million units in the quarter.
Huawei led all vendors with its shipments reaching 23 million units in the second quarter, but shipments from Lenovo and Coolpad remained flat due to their over reliance on telecom retail channels. Lenovo even saw its shipments decline to 7.5 million units in the second quarter.
Smartphone shipments by China-based vendors are expected to grow at a pace below 20% sequentially and on year in the third and fourth quarters of 2015 as domestic demand is unlikely to stage a strong rebound in the second half of the year, Digitimes Research estimated.