China's smartphone market has experienced a year-on-year decrease for this year's first quarter. (Photo : Reuters)
China’s smartphone market, regarded as the world’s largest, saw a 4.3-percent year-on year decrease in gadgets shipments during the first quarter of 2015, according to a recent International Data Corp. survey.
The shrinkage figure is a first for the market, which has been nearly saturated by tech firms and some other enterprises, in six years.
Industry experts suspect that the slowdown can be primarily attributed to the disappearance of the country's first-time smartphone buyers.
Currently, smartphones have an over 90-percent penetration rate in China, market research firm Counterpoint's research director Tom Kang stated.
"China is now a replacement market," Kang said, saying that almost every Chinese who wants the device already owns one.
The experts claim that for players to win a market share, they must focus on the upgrades that their gadget will feature.
"I won't buy a new one in the near future unless it gets slow or broken. I think I will still buy an iPhone in the future, but if Samsung produced a really fancy phone I would think about buying it," IT worker Liao Huimin shared.
The market slowdown entails major implications for foreign and local players, may they be veterans or starters in the industry.
Apple and local brand smartphone manufacturer Pegatron Corp.'s chief financial officer Charles Lin said that "the smartphone market in China is basically now just the very high end like Apple or the very low end."
"It's getting tough for those in the middle," he added.
In 2011, China overtook the U.S. in being the world's largest smartphone market, with players such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo and Coolpad filling the almost-saturated sector.
