China's Smartphone Market is Saturated

Global smartphone sales grew at the slowest growth rate since 2013 in the second quarter of 2015, according to Gartner.

Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users totaled 330 million units, an increase of 13.5 percent over the same period in 2014.

Emerging Asia/Pacific (excluding China), Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa were the fastest-growing regions.

But smartphone sales in China fell for the first time year over year, recording a four percent decline.

"While demand for lower-cost 3G and 4G smartphones continued to drive growth in emerging markets, overall smartphone sales remained mixed region by region in the second quarter of 2015," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers.”

"China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 percent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q15 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2Q15 Units	2Q15 Market Share (%)	2Q14 Units	2Q14 Market Share (%)
Samsung	72,072.5	21.9	76,129.2	26.2
Apple	48,085.5	14.6	35,345.3	12.2
Huawei	25,825.8	7.8	17,657.7	6.1
Lenovo*	16,405.9	5.0	19,081.2	6.6
Xiaomi	16,064.9	4.9	12,540.8	4.3
Others	151,221.7	45.9	129,630.2	44.6
Total	329,676.4	100.0	290,384.4	100.0

Source: Gartner (August 2015)