Shipments of smartphones by China-based vendors declined 8.8% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2014, affected by weaker than expected sales for some brand vendors, according to Digitimes Research.
For the first quarter of 2015, China's overall smartphone shipments are expected to suffer a further sequential drop of over 20% due to the impact of seasonality in overseas markets. As a result, vendors which have a high ratio of export sales, may suffer a decline of over 30% sequentially in the quarter.
Huawei shipped 16.7 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2014, recapturing the number one handset vendor title in the quarter, followed by TCL with shipments of 14.1 million units, while Lenovo and Xiaomi Technology co-shared the third title each shipping 13.8 million units.
Meanwhile, ZTE saw its shipments decline over 15% in the fourth quarter of 2014, affected by its falling brand image and mounting competition from rival vendors including TCL and Huawei.
Although Oppo has made headways in Southeast Asia, its shipments sank 7.2% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2014 due to sluggish demand in the domestic market, which accounted for 80% of its total shipments, Digitimes Research noted.
