Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in February, China’s domestic mobile phone market suffered a year-over-year decline of 19.9 percent. This is the lowest point in three years. China’s February handset shipment volume was 14.51 million; 96.4 percent were 4G phones. The 4G market declined by 20.2 percent, year-over-year. When combining January and February total sales, the year-over-year decline was 15.1 percent. Market analysts generally agreed that this is a clear sign that the Chinese mobile phone market has become significantly saturated. Before new technologies like 5G and foldable cellphones are widely available, growth seems to be very limited. In the first two months of this year, the Chinese market had 73 new mobile phone models. This was a year-over-year reduction of 42.1 percent. This means the mobile phone vendors are also taking a conservative approach and hoping new technology may bring new opportunities.
Source: LTN, March 12, 2019
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/2724711