Huawei was crowned as the China's leading smartphone manufacturer, snatching the title from Xiaomi. (Photo : REUTERS)
U.S. tech firms that have staked their growth on China have been affected by government moves to spur its slowing economy and restore investor confidence, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the report, the government's decision in early August to devaluate its currency will make it difficult for U.S. companies to sell their products, which have become more expensive to local buyers as a result of the devaluation.
The report said that a cheaper yuan would make Chinese-produced goods less costly abroad, which fits with government policies that promote foreign sales of Chinese technology.
"We see the key driver [of government action] being exports," Handel Jones, a consultant at International Business Strategies Inc. who has written books on China's high-tech sector, said. He added that Chinese companies "will become more aggressive."
China accounts for about 20 percent of the global total market consumption and has since become the main target of many U.S. companies intent on building their growth, owing to China's huge population.
The country, however, has started producing its own, and is no longer merely a consumer and manufacturer of products designed by companies abroad, the report added.
According to the article, Chinese companies have made homegrown designs for mobile devices, PCs and other products, and some are beginning to compete in the global markets dominated by U.S. companies.
As the world's largest market of smartphones, Xiaomi Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. have taken the first and second positions in the sales market. Researchers at International Data Corp. (IDC) revealed that Chinese brands account for four of the top five brands in the country in the second quarter.
Apple Inc.'s iPhone, at no. 3 position, continues to enjoy brisk sales and generate big profits in China. According to IDC, Samsung Electronics Co. is no longer at the top five suppliers and the issues with its mobile unit have caused declines in its net profit for five straight quarters.
Gartner Inc. said that smartphone shipments in the country fell 4 percent in the second quarter year on year, marking the first-ever decline. On the last week of August, IDC cut its forecast for unit growth in 2015 to 1.2 percent from 2.5 percent, a decrease of 19.7 percent from the 2014 figure.
