Revealed by these latest statistics, China’s mobile phone market is soon to reach saturation point, with growth set to slow dramatically.
With the largest mobile market in the world, China had a penetration level of 89% in 2012, with 82% of that figure made up of smartphones in 2013. Quartz cited analysts who reckon that penetration will reach 90% in 2014.
So what are device manufacturers to do? Homegrown Chinese brands, firms like ZTE and Huawei, will have to start looking further afield for market growth, especially as Western firms such as Apple and Asian competitors such as Samsung and LG dominate the list of best-selling phones in China.
Xiaomi, another Chinese phone manufacturer, actually outsold Samsung and Apple in China over Christmas 2013, most likely due to the saturation of the market already. This year it is expanding to 10 other countries with its ultra-budget phones. These countries include Russia, India, Turkey, and Mexico, and closer to home Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, and may turn the firm into not just a domestic success, but an international one too.
