Nigeria: Smartphone Shipments in China Decline for the First Time in Six Years

For years now China has been one of the main drivers of growth in the global smartphone market, but it looks like demand in the country is beginning to slow down. For the first time in six years, smartphone shipments in China declined year-on-year, contracting by 4 percent to 98.8 million units in the first quarter of 2015. This represents a fall of 8 percent compared to the previous quarter, reports US market researcher IDC, although the firm notes that this is partly due to large amounts of unsold inventory left over from the end of 2014.

Despite the perception of China as an emerging market for smartphones, the country is now broadly comparable to nations such as the US and UK, says IDC China's managing director Kitty Fok. "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," said Fok in a statement. "Smartphones are becoming increasingly saturated in China."

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