Chart of the Day: China’s Shrinking Phone Market

China’s mobile phone market is shrinking after years of strong growth, with fresh data showing total shipments fell 15.6% year-on-year in 2018.

Graphic: Gao Baiyu/Caixin

The nation’s total mobile phone shipments fell last year to 414 million units, of which 89.5% were domestic brands, according to a report published Tuesday by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Domestic brands’ share of total shipments was down 14.9% from the year before, according to the report.

The country’s smartphone shipments in 2018 stood at 390 million, down 15.5% year-on-year, the report said. Of the smartphones shipped, 89.3% were Android phones. The top ten smartphone manufacturers combined made up a larger share of total shipments, reaching 93% in 2018 from 85.1% the year before, according to the report.

Shipment figures are commonly used in industry reports to gauge a phone market. They refer to the number of devices manufacturers like Apple and Huawei send to carriers and retailers, and may or may not reflect the number of devices that actually reached consumers.

Contact reporter Charlotte Yang (yutingyang@caixin.com)