Sales of smartphones in China, the world’s biggest market, fell last year for the first time since 2009, raising fresh concern over the strength of the global handset market.
Data from IDC, the research company, showed that smartphone sales slumped 4.9 per cent in 2017 as the local market, which accounts for about one in every three shipments by the global mobile phone industry, contracted.
Analysts pointed to the fact that Chinese consumers were waiting longer to replace their smartphones than in the past, mirroring a similar trend in other markets, including the UK. China’s slowing appetite for new phones is a blow to Apple, Samsung and Huawei, the nation’s top-selling brands, and has prompted companies along the groups’ supply chains to rethink their strategies.