Smartphones from China sell record numbers

31 Jul 2014

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Chinese smartphone manufacturers racked up big gains as the global market for Internet-linked handsets grew to record levels in the second quarter, International Data Corp said.

IDC's Melissa Chau says inexpensive well-built smartphones with a host of features from Chinese companies are boosting sales for Huawei and Lenovo. Image: YouTube

According to IDC Huawei and Lenovo, both based in China, emerged as winners as a record number of 295.3m smartphones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter of this year.

"As the death of the feature phone approaches it is the Chinese vendors that are ready to move emerging market consumers into smartphones," IDC Senior Research Manager Melissa Chau said in a release with the quarterly figures.

"The offer of smartphones at lower prices and with a stronger build quality and larger scale than local competitors gives vendors a competitive advantage," she said.

The overall smartphone market grew 23.1% when compared with the same quarter a year earlier, IDC reported.

The Huawei Ascend smartphone is an attractive offering for emerging market buyers. Image: PC Pro

The research company cited ongoing demand for accessing computing power on the go along with an abundance of low-priced smartphones that are stimulating growth.

Record second quarter sales

"A record second quarter proves that the smartphone market has plenty of opportunity and momentum," said IDC Analyst Ryan Reith.

"Buyers in emerging markets such as China support local smartphone manufacturers and this boosted sales results," he said.

IDC figures show Huawei nearly doubled its shipments from the same quarter a year ago, while Lenovo also recorded a strong performance.

South Korea-based Samsung shipped millions of its premium Galaxy smartphones but saw its overall market share drop by 7%.

Apple typically expects an easing of iPhone sales in the second quarter, but they slowed by even more with IDC claiming that the forthcoming release of the iPhone 6 is the reason for the drop.

Samsung remained the top vendor with 74m handsets shipped, followed by Apple (35m), Huawei (20m), Lenovo (15.8m) and South Korea's LG (14.5m).

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge

Source: I-Net Bridge

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