A report released Monday by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that China’s smartphone market declined by 4 percent year-on-year with 98.8 million smartphones shipped during the first quarter of 2015 compared to 103.2 million smartphones shipped during the year-ago quarter. This, noted IDC, is the first time in six years that China’s smartphone market showed a year-on-year decline, largely due to the market maturing. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, the market declined by 8 percent; largely due to a big inventory buildup at the end of the year.

China no longer an emerging market for smartphones

“Smartphones are becoming increasingly saturated in China,” said Kitty Fok, Managing Director at IDC China, in a statement. “China is oftentimes thought of as an emerging market but the reality is that the vast majority of phones sold in China today are smartphones, similar to other mature markets like the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan.”

To achieve future growth on the Chinese smartphone market vendors will now have to convince existing smartphone users and feature phone users to upgrade to new smartphones, added Fok.

Top five smartphone vendors in China

Source: IDC Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, May 2015

Apple took the number one spot among smartphone vendors in China. The iPhone maker shipped 14.5 million iPhones during the first quarter, up from 8.9 million iPhones in the year-ago quarter.

Last month the Cupertino-based company reported that its first quarter sales in Greater China increased 71 percent from the year-ago quarter, largely due to strong demand for its products, including the larger-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, over the Chinese New Year period.

Xiaomi, facing competition from rivals in the low to mid-tier market segment, took the number two spot, while Huawei gained ground in the mid-tier segment to grab the number three spot.

Samsung and Lenovo rounded out the top five in the fourth and fifth spots respectively. Samsung may gain back some market share starting in the second quarter thanks to its newly-launched Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

Low-cost smartphones to drive market growth in 2015

While IDC forecasts a comparatively flat growth rate for the remainder of 2015, there is some room for growth. “Most of the market’s growth will come from sub-US$150 phones as feature phone users switch to low-cost smartphones,” said Tay Xiaohan, Senior Market Analyst with IDC Asia/Pacific’s Client Devices team.

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