The Chinese smartphone market is in continuous decline when it comes to the number of smartphone shipments. According to Digitimes shipments of smartphones by Chinese Manufacturers shrank 30.5% when compared to the number of shipments in the last quarter. Furthermore, the shipments also shrank 5.8% when compared to the same period last year, berthing at an estimated 140 million units in Q1 2019.
The decline was justified by the lack of consumer confidence that was lifted up by the US-China trade tensions and off-peak season effects in the overseas market. Despite the decline, Huawei managed to expand its shipments in the primary quarter when contrasted with the sum shipped a year ago. The Chinese Behemoth managed to surpass the whole crisis with the US government, by releasing plenty of mid-range and entry-level smartphones on its domestic market and across some markets in Europe.
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The second to fourth places in the overall shipments is occupied by Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. All these companies saw a decline in the number of shipments in Q1 2019 in accordance with the overall market drop. Xiaomi shipments contracted by 20% when compared to the same period early on 2018. Digitimes Research projects a successive development of over 20% for the Chinese smartphone market narrowing the annual decline rate to 1.9% in the Q2 2019.
According to the analysts, the drop can also be justified by the saturation of the market, which gets inflated with new smartphones launch on an often basis. This is forcing companies to explore new markets in a bid to ramp up their sales. Judging by the actual basis, only Huawei will be able to keep a continuous growth in the shipments through the whole year of 2019.