Smartphone shipments to China were 94.1 million in Q2’17, down 11.8% YoY although similar to Q1, according to Digitimes Research. Chinese shipments were 28.9% of the global number. In particular, the top three telecom operators saw new 4G subscribers hit a 56 million low, resulting in reduced smartphone sales. The fall was blamed on an unclear subsidy policy for operators and a lowering of inventory levels. The researcher thinks that Huawei, Oppo and Vivo have increased Q3 component orders, which would result in a 20% QoQ increase. Although Q4 would also be strong, this would still be a YoY fall, due to an aggressive strategy in 2016.
The top five vendors in Q2 were Huawei, Xiaomi Technology, Vivo, Oppo and Apple. Xiaomi saw its shipments double.
