Smartphone sales in China decline for the first time

Four per cent decline in China had a negative effect on the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter

Worldwide smartphone sales recorded their slowest growth rate since 2013 in the second quarter of 2015, according to research firm Gartner, who said that much of this was down to a dip in sales in the world's biggest smartphone market, China.

"China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 per cent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015. Its poor performance negatively affected the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

Despite a slower growth, there were around 330 million smartphones sold worldwide in the quarter, an increase of 13.5 per cent over the same period in 2014.

Smartphone sales in China fell for the first time year over year, recording a four per cent decline.

"China has reached saturation - its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers. Beyond the lower-end phone segment, the appeal of premium smartphones will be key for vendors to attract upgrades and to maintain or grow their market share in China," Gupta said.

However, in other emerging markets, demand for lower-cost 3G and 4G smartphones meant continued growth. But overall smartphone sales remained mixed region by region in the second quarter of 2015.

According to Gartner, emerging Asia/Pacific (excluding China), Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa were the fastest-growing regions, and this was driven by good performances from Chinese and local vendors.

Meanwhile, Apple continued to win the battle for the high-end smartphone market share, with iPhone sales increasing by 36 per cent within the quarter, giving it a 2.4 per cent increase in market share. Its main rival, Samsung, lost 4.3 per cent in market share and declined 5.3 per cent in unit sale in the same period. Huawei had the highest growth rate of smartphone vendors, with a 46.3 per cent increase which was due to impressive overseas sales and 4G smartphone sales in China.

In the smartphone operating system market, Android lost out to Apple again - both largely because of how the respective systems fared in China, with Apple taking share from Android in the country for the past three quarters.

Android saw its lowest year-over-year growth of 11 per cent, with its market share reaching 82.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2015.

Meanwhile, Microsoft struggled to get any foothold in the market for Windows Phone devices.

"In light of Microsoft's recent cuts in its mobile hardware business, we'll await signs of its long-term commitment in the smartphone market," said Gupta.

Global mobile phone sales totalled 446 million units during the quarter.