IDC says China smartphone market growth contracted for the first time in six years

According to IDC, smartphone shipments fell in Q1 2015 by 4 percent compared to the same quarter last year, with shipments totaling 98.8 million. Comparing data from this quarter to Q4 2014, the research firm states that shipments have fallen by 8 percent. The stumped growth is believed to be related to the struggle of convincing those already with a smartphone to switch, much like other developed markets.

Kitty Fok, managing director at IDC China commented on the report:

"China is often 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 US, UK, Australia, and Japan. Just like these markets, 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."

It would also tie in with Chinese-based manufacturers looking to expand overseas to capitalize on the affordable flagships segment of the smartphone market. Interestingly, Apple sits at the top of the charts, shipping nearly 15 million devices since 2015 kicked off. Local manufacturer Xiaomi sits in a comfortable second with 13.5 million shipments. Microsoft has been attempting to push through mid-range handsets like the Lumia 830.

Check out the full release on the IDC website.

Source: IDC; via: BBC

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

21 Comments
  • And MS is trying to get into that market.?
  • WTF! (insert GIF below)
  • How much market share does windows phone have in china?
  • Very, very little. Less than 1%. Source: Jason Ward's latest editorial on this site.
  • So there is nothing to lose but just to gain.
  • Optimism FTW
  • Haha, man that's bad remember those news where Nokia partnered with biggest carrier few years back and sold only 0.01 percent and Cortana is of no interest to them
  • Microsoft is said to have lowered production of Lumia smartphones already by 20 % because of less than expected sales especially in China, South East Asia and South America. So not a really big surprise. See: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150507PD205.html
  • microsoft lowering their expecattions towards lumia - that's the same old story since the origins of wp, right?
  • +820
  • Sweeping generalization.
  • Yikes, worse than Isis members?
  • That's offensive!
  • "Interestingly, Apple sits at the top of the charts, shipping nearly 15 million devices since 2015 kicked off" If by interestingly you meant "unfortunately" or "sadly" then yeah, I agree with you.
  • Probably going to be tough to convince the Chinese market to buy new phones every year ​
  • The Chinese will start dumping phones below cost price on the world markets soon, forcing all current phone manufacturers out of the market. Immediately after that they will launch their own OS and take control of all data on all smartphones in the world. That's one of the benefits of being a semi dictatorship, one can plan these things and the free Western market allows you to get away with it as well. Using weapons to gain world domination is so last century ;-)
  • China is an amazing country. I went there last month for two weeks as was blown away by how far along they are compared to any place on Earth. Obviously I can't speak to the whole country but at least in the main cities they are on par with any city in Japan or the US. Chinese people are also very friendly and helpfull. I don't get why all this stupid hate towards them.
  • How they get that face instead of the breathing Cortana circle
  • It didn't contract, it just bent, because of all those iPhones the Chinese have been buying
  • No,many people buy cheap Android
  • I'm a Chinese,and I'm using Lumia 1520,920,HTC 8x,8s,now