China Smartphone Tracker, 1Q14 - DigiTimes · China first-tier smartphone players – Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad and ZTE –started releasing new smartphones in the fourth quarter of

China Smartphone Tracker, 1Q14

DIGITIMES Research China smartphone and industry Research Analyst: Anthony Chen

Introduction

China first-tier smartphone players – Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad and ZTE –started releasing new

smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2013 because their entry-level model inventories, accumulated

over the first three quarters of 2013, were mostly digested by October 2013. The new models’ larger

screen sizes and better application processors also increased China consumers’ demand.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Huawei and CoolPad have both established sub-brands for the

Internet channel and through creating online shops to lower selling price, it has attracted consumers

and raised both players’ shipments to China. However, their moves are expected to impact Xiaomi,

the first player that has adopted the business model and heat the competition in the China

smartphone market.

China’s smartphone market achieved a sequential shipment growth of 21.9% in the fourth quarter of

2013; however, the on-year growth of only 15.9% showed that the market is already approaching

saturation. In the first quarter of 2014, demand from the Lunar New Year holidays and expanded

sales from online shops should help China’s smartphone market to reach a shipment volume of

almost 100 million units, despite a weak sequential growth compared to the fourth quarter.China

smartphone players include local brand vendors such as Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad, white-box

brand vendors (Other) and independent design houses (IDHs) (Other). First-tier players are those

with annual shipments over or close to 30 million units. IDHs are similar to ODMs.

1

Key factors affecting smartphone

shipments to China in 4Q13

Factors Item Analysis Influence on shipments

Supply:

Markets/Clients

Demand recovery/

Better product

price/performance ratio

China players’ 4.7-inch and above quad-core

smartphones priced at between CNY600-800

★★↑

Consumer demand rose

New shopping season

and online channel

� November 11 online shopping promotion

attracted strong demand

� More players entered the online channel

★★★↑

Strong demand remained into

the first quarter of 2014

Players:

China players/

International

brands

International brands

� Samsung had weaker-than-expected

performance

� Apple’s cooperation with China mobile

delayed to January 2014. Apple’s sales could

have gone even higher

★↓ International brands had weaker-

than-expected performance

China first-tier players

� Inventory issues resolved; picking up their

paces on launching new models

� Turning conservative over cooperation with

telecom carriers; increasing sales through

online and retail channels

★★★↑ Players enjoyed shipment

growths with most having better

performance than 2Q13

China second-tier players

� Players such as Oppo, BBK and Gionee saw

stable shipment growth

� Xiaomi shipped over 7 million smartphones

★★↑

Players saw increased shipments,

but fiercer competition

2

Note: The more stars, the higher the influence.↓indicates negative influence,↑indicates a positive influence.

Key factors affecting smartphone

shipments to China in 4Q13

• Markets/Clients:

• China players’ quad-core and 4.7-inch and above smartphones saw their prices drop to a new low, which relatively

increased their demand from consumers.

• Frequent promotions of China-based Internet shopping website players such as JD, Tmall and Taobao continue to heat up

consumer demand for smartphones. In addition, as more smartphone players have entered the Internet channel, more

sales have been done through players’ online shops because without needing to share parts of their profits with channel

retailers, players are able to lower their prices.

• Players (China players/International Brands):

• International brands: Samsung Electronics, the largest smartphone vendor worldwide had weak sales for its high-end

models in the fourth quarter in China and was mainly relied on its entry-level and mid-range models to prop up its

shipments. Apple and China Mobile’s cooperation had been delayed to late-January of 2014 and Apple’s smartphone

sales in China are expected to rise higher in the first quarter of 2014.

• China-based first-tier players: With old inventories mostly digested, the players had been releasing new models during

the fourth quarter to help boosting their shipments to China. The players are also balancing their channel focuses to

avoid the same inventory issue occurred during their cooperation with telecom carriers in the first three quarters of 2013,

from happening again.

• China-based second-tier players: Second-tier players such as Oppo, BBK and Gionee achieved 20-30% sequential

shipment growth in the fourth quarter. Xiaomi’s shipments surpassed seven million units and ranked the sixth largest

player in China, behind only CoolPad. However, as first-tier players are starting to adopt product and business strategies

similar to those of second-tier players, competition is expected to become fiercer in the future.

3

China smartphone shipments, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

4

71.5 86.8 73.4 89.5 96.8

-7.4%

21.4%

-15.4%

21.9%

8.2%

81.0% 80.1%

16.5%

15.9%

35.4%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Shipments Q/Q Y/Y

Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data Tracker customers

China smartphone shipments, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

• Digitimes Research expects China’s smartphone shipments to grow over 8% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014 because:

• The Lunar New Year holidays in China provided strong sales.

• China Mobile started selling iPhone in late-January of 2014.

• Lenovo will try to push its shipments as the first quarter of 2014 is the last quarter of its fiscal 2013

• China first-tier players will enter the online channel, boosting their sales.

5


3G service users and new subscribers for China telecom

carriers, January-December 2013 (m units)

6

7.1

9.5 9.9

5.7

9.4 8.5

9.2

11.6 10.8

6.5

5.1

10.5

3.7 3.4 4.3 4.1 4.0 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.5

3.0 2.8 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.0 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

0

50

100

150

200

250

China Mobile existing subscriber China Unicom existing subscriber

China Telecom existing subscriber China Mobile new subscirber

China Unicom new subscriber China Telecom new subscriber


3G service users and new subscribers for China

telecom carriers, January-December 2013 (m units)

• With its goal of selling 120 million TD-based handsets in 2013 being achieved early in September 2013 and

first-tier players’ 3.5-inch entry-level smartphone inventories mostly digested in October, China Mobile has

turned passive about subsidizing smartphones starting the fourth quarter of 2013.

• Since China smartphone players did not release their new smartphone models until after November, most 2G

users have waited until then before upgrading their services to 3G. As a result, China Mobile only had an

increase of 5.1 million 3G users in November, the lowest in 2013.

• China Unicom and China Telecom are both aiming to push the FDD-LTE network in China as their priorities,

but because the China government still has not yet released the related licenses, in the short terms, the two

players will focus on establishing small scale of their own TD-LTE network and rent China Mobile’s TD-LTE

network to provide 4G services.

• China Unicom has raised its 3G network speed to HSPA+42M, hoping to gain an equal footing against China

Mobile; however, its new subscribers gained as well as that of China Telecom had always maintained at a

similar range each month during 2013.

7


China smartphone market shipments,

by China-based players, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

8

0

4

8

12

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Lenovo 6.6 10.8 8.0 10.2 11.2

Huawei 6.1 9.0 6.9 9.0 9.4

CoolPad 6.8 8.3 6.9 7.8 7.7

Xiaomi 3.1 4.2 4.0 7.0 5.6

Oppo 3.1 3.7 4.0 4.8 4.8

BBK 2.3 2.8 3.2 4.1 4.0

Gionee 2.4 2.6 2.7 3.1 3.7

ZTE 2.1 2.7 1.9 1.6 2.3

Hisense 1.6 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.3

Tianyu 4.0 3.6 1.3 1.0 1.0


China smartphone market shipments,

by China-based players, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

• Lenovo’s smartphone shipments returned above 10 million units in the fourth quarter. Since Lenovo is aiming

to ship 50 million smartphones for its fiscal 2013, ended the first quarter of 2014, the player has been pushing

its shipments in China and with demand from the Lunar New Year holiday, the company is expected to ship

over 11 million smartphones in China in the first quarter of 2014.

• Huawei’s Ascend P6 and Mate smartphones, which are both able to contribute a million of sales, mid-

range/entry-level smartphone models and new online sub-brand Honor are expected to pump up the

company’s shipments by 4% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014.

• Xiaomi, ranked at the fourth in the fourth quarter of 2013, will see its shipments impacted by other players

joining the online channel.

9


China smartphone market shipments, by

international brands, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

10

0

5

10

15

20

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Samsung 12.0 14.5 15.4 16.4 18.1

Apple 6.2 5.5 5.7 11.2 13.1

Nokia 1.0 1.2 1.0 0.8 1.3

HTC 2.1 2.3 1.5 1.4 2.4

LG 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.3

Sony 0.3 0.4 0.8 0.6 0.3


China smartphone market shipments, by

international brands, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

• Since Samsung Electronics’ high-end Galaxy Note 3

launched in the third quarter of 2013, did not receive

feedbacks as good as its predecessors in China, while

its Galaxy S4 sales has also weakened after several

quarters of availability, the Korea-based vendor is now

relying on its mid-range and entry-level models to

maintain its shipments in China.

11


China smartphone market shipment share,

by all players, 1Q13-1Q14

12

0%20%40%60%80%

100%

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Samsung 16.8% 16.7% 21.0% 18.3% 18.7%

Apple 8.7% 6.3% 7.8% 12.5% 13.5%

Lenovo 9.3% 12.4% 10.8% 11.4% 11.6%

Huawei 8.6% 10.3% 9.5% 10.0% 9.7%

CoolPad 9.6% 9.6% 9.4% 8.7% 7.9%

Xiaomi 4.3% 4.8% 5.4% 7.8% 5.8%

Oppo 4.3% 4.3% 5.4% 5.4% 5.0%

BBK 3.2% 3.2% 4.4% 4.6% 4.1%

Gionee 3.4% 3.0% 3.7% 3.5% 3.8%

HTC 2.9% 2.7% 2.0% 1.6% 2.5%

Hisense 2.2% 2.9% 3.5% 3.0% 2.4%

ZTE 2.9% 3.1% 2.5% 1.8% 2.4%

Tianyu 5.6% 4.2% 1.8% 1.2% 1.0%

Other 18.2% 16.5% 12.8% 10.3% 11.6%


China smartphone market shipment share,

by all players, 1Q13-1Q14

• China smartphone shipment share by all players:

• International brands:

• Samsung is facing a bottleneck for its smartphone sales growth and has

seen its share in China smartphone shipments drop below 20% since the

fourth quarter of 2013.

• Apple’s iPhone 5S sales in the fourth quarter of 2013 significantly raised

the company’s market share in the fourth quarter. Apple’s cooperation with

China Mobile in the first quarter will further increase the percentage.

• Slow upgrades for its high-end models, while its mid-range and entry-level

models’ pricing strategy and product specifications were both weaker than

those of China’s second-tier players, High Tech Computer (HTC) suffered

declines in both shipments and shipment share in the fourth quarter.

• China players:

• Xiaomi became the fourth largest China-based smartphone players in the

fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2014, the company will see its share

drop 2pp sequentially, but still ranked the same.

13


China smartphone market, 2013

China market share of global smartphone

shipments, 2012-2013 (m units)

2012

WW smartphone

shipments

685.1

2013(e)

WW smartphone

shipments

958.8

■ China market

■ Other markets Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data Tracker customers

China market share of global smartphone


• China’s smartphone market had shipments of 321.3

million units in 2013, up 41% on year.

• The global smartphone market had an on-year

shipment growth of 40% in 2013, only 1pp behind that

of the China smartphone market. This shows that the

China smartphone market has already stabilized and

may no longer be able to see surging growths as

before.

16


China smartphone market, shipments and share by local

players and international brands, 2012-2013 (m units)

17

2012

China smartphone

shipments

227.8

2013(e)

China smartphone

shipments

321.3

■ China players

■ International

brands


China smartphone market, shipments and share by local

players and international brands, 2012-2013 (m units)

• China players’ shipments to the local market increased

42.7% on year to 219.1 million units with combined

market share growing 0.8pp.

• International brands also saw their shipments to China

rise 28.1 million units on year in 2013, contributed

mainly by Samsung and Apple.

18


China smartphone market shipments

by all players, 2012-2013 (m units)

19

-150%

-50%

50%

150%

250%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Samsun

gLenovo Huawei CoolPad Apple Xiaomi Oppo BBK Gionee Tianyu Hisense ZTE HTC Other

2012 30.3 24.7 22.2 21.9 23.1 7.3 6.9 6.3 8.3 3.4 4.1 18.2 7.6 41.8

2013(e) 58.3 35.6 31.0 29.8 28.6 18.3 15.6 12.4 10.8 10.0 9.4 8.2 7.3 44.8

Y/Y 92.4% 44.1% 39.6% 36.1% 23.8% 150.7% 126.1% 96.8% 30.1% 194.1% 129.3% -54.9% -3.9% 7.2%


China smartphone market shipments

by all players, 2012-2013 (m units)

• China smartphone shipments and growth by all players:

• Samsung’s annual smartphone shipments reached 58.3 million units in

2013, down from Digitimes Research’s original forecast of 60.9 million

units, but still the largest vendor in China.

• The delay in Apple and China Mobile’ cooperation increased the US-

based vendor’s sales only by 23.8% on year, weaker than most of its

competitors.

• Lenovo shipped over 35 million smartphones to China in 2013.

Although the company surpassed Apple and became the second largest

in the year, it still had over 20 million unit gap with Samsung.

• With China smartphone players’ shipments to the local market mostly

surpassing 10 million units in 2013, HTC dropped out of the top-10 in

the China smartphone market in the year.

20


China smartphone shipment share

by all players, 2012-2013

21

13.3%

10.8%

10.1%

9.7% 9.6%

8.0%

3.6%

3.3%

3.2%

3.0%

2.8%

1.8%

1.5%

19.1%

2012

2013(e)

■ Samsung ■ Gionee

■ Apple ■ Oppo

■ HTC ■ BBK

■ Huawei ■ Xiaomi

■ ZTE ■ Hisense

■ Lenovo ■ Tianyu

■ CoolPad ■ Other 18.1%

11.1%

9.6%

9.3% 8.9%

5.7%

4.8%

3.9%

3.4%

3.1%

2.9% 2.6%

2.3%

14.3%


China smartphone shipment share

by all players, 2012-2013

• Handset independent design houses (IDHs) in eastern China, which are being

categorized by Digitimes Research as Other, have mostly turned to land mid-range

and entry-level smartphone ODM orders from large China players such as Huawei,

Lenovo and CoolPad. Since the shipments are counted toward the smartphone

players’ performances instead of the IDHs, it has impacted the Other segment’s

shipment share in 2013.

• The Other segment’s share drop in 2013 was partly due to Huawei, Lenovo and

CoolPad’s entry-level smartphones, which seriously impacted white-box smartphone

players’ sales.

22


China smartphone industry shipment

performance, 4Q13 and 1Q14

Introduction

China players’ smartphone shipments enjoyed a sequential growth in the fourth quarter with a volume

surpassing that of the second quarter because China’s first-tier smartphone players – Huawei, Lenovo,

CoolPad and ZTE – have already ridded most of their entry-level model inventories at telecom channels and

started releasing new models, and Huawei, ZTE and TCL’s shipments to markets outside of China

(overseas) also continued to enjoy growth.

The fourth quarter is the traditional peak season for overseas markets and related demand had been rising

since the late-third quarter of 2013. However, most China players’ smartphone shipments still went to the

local market. With the releases of new smartphones and the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays demand,

China’s first-tier and second-tier smartphone players have enjoyed a good sequential shipment growth in the

fourth quarter.

Fewer working days in February and China’s weakening smartphone demand will cause China players’

shipments to drop sequentially in the first quarter.

China smartphone players include local brand vendors such as Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad, white-box brand

vendors (Other) and independent design houses (IDHs) (Other). First-tier players are those with annual

shipments over or close to 30 million units. IDHs are similar to ODMs.

24


Key factors affecting China players’

smartphone shipments in 4Q13

Factors Item Analysis Influence on shipments

Supply:

Manufacturing and

products

Component

supply

Sufficient memory supply; prices returned

stable

★★↑ Players had better cost and

component preparation management

Smartphones with MediaTek quad-core and

eight-core processors showing up; high

adoption rate for its Turnkey solution

★★↑

Accelerated new product launches

Demand:

Clients and

markets

First-tier

smartphone

vendors in

China

3.5-inch entry-level smartphone inventory had

mostly been cleared and new models were

being launched

★★★↑ Good inventory management in

3Q13 helped shipments to return

stable in 4Q13

China market Vendors had been pushing shipment in China

for the Lunar New Year holiday demand

★★↑

Shipments to China increased

Emerging

markets

outside China

Markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil are

seeing exchange rate depreciation, which is

impacting players’ profitability

★★↓ White-box vendors in China were

impacted the most

Mature

markets

worldwide

Europe and the US markets enjoyed strong

demand during the year-end holidays

★★★↑ Extending the strong demand from

the third quarter

25

Note: The more stars, the higher the influence.↓indicates negative influence,↑indicates a positive influence.


Key factors affecting China players’

smartphone shipments in 4Q13

• Key factors that affected China players’ smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013:

• Mobile memory shortage and price hike issues were eased, returning players’ costs and

inventories management back to normal.

• Over 50% of China’s smartphone players adopted MediaTek’s application processors for

their products. Its turnkey solutions and friendly prices accelerated China smartphone

players’ pace of launching new products, while its quad-core and eight-core processors

increased the players’ number of new projects and helped improve devices’ usage

experience.

• The China telecom channel’s entry-level smartphone inventory was mostly cleared in the

early fourth quarter and players had been launching new models during the quarter,

returning their shipment pace back to normal. The Lunar New Year holidays also boosted

the players’ shipments to local channels.

• Seeing emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil, having exchange rates

depreciation, white-box smartphone players reduced their shipments to these countries to

minimize losses from exchange differences.

• Mature markets worldwide enjoyed strong smartphone demand in the fourth quarter

thanks to the year-end holidays shopping season with related vendors having placed

strong orders until the end of November. Some orders from the end of the third quarter

were postponed to the fourth quarter for shipments.

26


China player smartphone shipments,

1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

27

-100%

0%

100%

200%

0

20

40

60

80

100

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Shipments 69.4 81.2 77.1 87.1 86.5

Q/Q -3.6% 17.0% -5.0% 13.0% -0.7%

Y/Y 169.0% 100.5% 38.4% 21.0% 24.6%Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data Tracker customers

China player smartphone shipments,

1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

• Since demand from non-China countries remained strong and

the four major smartphone players in China, Lenovo, Huawei,

CoolPad and ZTE started launching new models in China after

finished digesting their old inventories in the telecom channel,

China smartphone players’ combined shipments grew 13%

sequentially and 21% on year to over 87 million units.

• Digitimes Research expects China smartphone players’

shipments to still rely on local demand in the first quarter of

2014.

28


Shipments by China player, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

29

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Lenovo 7.2 11.7 8.7 11.2 13.1

Huawei 7.5 11.0 9.0 11.7 12.1

CoolPad 7.0 8.5 7.0 8.0 7.8

Xiaomi 3.1 4.2 4.0 7.1 6.1

TCL 1.5 3.2 4.6 6.8 6.1

ZTE 6.8 8.8 6.2 5.5 5.9

OPPO 3.1 3.7 4.0 4.9 4.8

Gionee 3.1 3.3 3.6 4.4 4.5

BBK 2.3 2.8 3.2 4.1 4.0

Hisense 1.6 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.3

Tianyu 4.2 3.8 1.4 1.1 1.0

Other 22.0 17.7 22.8 19.6 18.8


Shipments by China player, 1Q13-1Q14 (m units)

• China smartphone players’ shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013:

• Huawei surpassed Lenovo and become the largest China smartphone player. Both players’ entry-level smartphone

inventories at their telecom carrier partners were mostly digested.

• Xiaomi and TCL both shipped more smartphones than ZTE in the quarter, squeezing ZTE out of the top five.

Xiaomi’s strong growth was mainly due to demand pickup for its Xiaomi 3 and Hongmi smartphones, while TCL

was benefited by its overseas shipments.

• Oppo, Gionee and BBK saw stable shipment and profit growths in the quarter because of their products’ high gross

margin.

• China smartphone players’ shipments in the first quarter of 2014:

• The first quarter of 2014 is the final quarter of Lenovo’s fiscal 2013 and the company is expected to focus on pushing

its shipments to reach the goal of 50 million units for the fiscal year. The intention will allow Lenovo to return as the

largest player.

• Because of the Lunar New Year holidays in China and its online shop smartphone brand, Honor having successfully

expanded into new consumer groups in China, Huawei’s shipments will grow over 12 million units in the quarter.

• Huawei and CoolPad’s smartphone sub-brands, which are selling devices through their online stores like Xiaomi,

may create threat against Xiaomi’s business model. TCL is focusing mainly on the overseas market and is not

benefiting much from China’s strong demand in the quarter.

• Compared to the previous quarter, most of other second-tier players will have a flat performance in the first quarter of 2014.

• Because overseas markets have entered the slow season in the first quarter of 2014 and China’s first-tier and second-tier

brand vendors have been expanding their presence in the markets, China’s white-box players (other), which focus mainly on

the markets, are seeing their shipments being impacted.

30


Y/Y shipment growth by China players, 4Q13

31

-100%

-50%

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

Huawei Lenovo CoolPad ZTE TCL Xiaomi Oppo BBK Gionee Tianyu Hisense Other

Q/Q 30.0% 28.7% 14.3% -11.3% 47.8% 77.5% 22.5% 28.1% 22.2% -21.4% 3.8% -14.0%

Y/Y 11.4% 36.6% 25.0% -41.5% 195.7% 102.9% 75.0% 64.0% 41.9% -21.4% 92.9% -4.4%Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data Tracker customers

Y/Y shipment growth by China players, 4Q13

• China smartphone player’s shipments in 4Q13:

• Because of its weak performance in the China smartphone market, ZTE suffered shipment drop in the

quarter.

• TCL focuses mainly on markets outside of China (overseas) and the year-end holidays strongly boosted

the company’s shipments sequentially.

• Thanks to their mid-range and high-end smartphones’ good reputation, Oppo and BBK’s shipments,

which are mainly supplied to China, enjoyed steady growths in the quarter.

• Xiaomi had a surging shipment growth in the quarter because its entry-level Hongmi smartphone supply

has stabilized and the device is expected to continue contributing growth in the first half of 2014.

Xiaomi released the WCDMA version of its Xiaomi 3 in December 2013 to strengthen its product lines,

which originally only had models with the TD-SCDMA standard. The new device is expected to help

Xiaomi expand its sales in China and prepare for the entry to the overseas market.

• Gionee achieved strong performance in both China and overseas markets.

• China brand vendors have been aggressively expanding into the online channel and markets outside of

China, and their mid-range/entry-level smartphones supplied to overseas markets and sub-brands

models for selling through online shops, have mostly been outsourced to independent design houses

(IDHs) in eastern China. These volumes are included into brand vendors’ shipments instead of those of

IDHs. IDHs’ shipments to non-China vendors are included in Other.

• Because of exchange rate depreciation in some of their focused emerging markets, China white-box

players (included in Other) have reduced their orders to minimize their losses and relatively impacted

shipments of IDHs in southern China, the main manufacturing partners of white-box players, causing

the Other category to suffer 14% sequential drop in the quarter.

32


Shipments of China smartphone players by

market, 4Q13 (m units)

33

2.7 1.0

3.9

0.2

1.3 6.3

0.1 0.1

0.1

12.7

23.1%

8.9%

70.9%

2.5%

29.5%

92.6%

2.0% 1.4%

9.1%

64.8%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

5

10

15

20

25

China Overseas markets Overseas market share


Shipments of China smartphone players by

market, 4Q13 (m units)

• China smartphone players’ shipments to non-China (overseas) market in the fourth

quarter of 2013:

• Huawei’s overseas shipment share rose up to over 23%.

• ZTE’s overseas shipments mainly went to North America, Latin America and

Europe.

• TCL remained the vendor with the largest overseas shipments.

• Xiaomi and Oppo just recently entered overseas markets. Xiaomi has chosen

Taiwan and Singapore, while Oppo has entered Russia and Thailand.

• IDHs (included in Other) saw their overseas shipments drop 3.3 million units on

quarter because of the exchange rate depreciation in India, Indonesia and other

countries in Southeast Asia.

34


Shipment share by China player, 1Q13-1Q14

35

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1Q13 2Q13 3Q13 4Q13(e) 1Q14(f)

Lenovo 10.4% 14.4% 11.3% 12.9% 15.1%

Huawei 10.8% 13.5% 11.7% 13.4% 14.0%

CoolPad 10.1% 10.5% 9.1% 9.2% 9.0%

Xiaomi 4.5% 5.2% 5.2% 8.2% 7.1%

TCL 2.2% 3.9% 6.0% 7.8% 7.1%

ZTE 9.8% 10.8% 8.0% 6.3% 6.8%

Oppo 4.5% 4.6% 5.2% 5.6% 5.5%

Gionee 4.5% 4.1% 4.7% 5.1% 5.2%

BBK 3.3% 3.4% 4.2% 4.7% 4.6%

Hisense 2.3% 3.1% 3.4% 3.1% 2.7%

Tianyu 6.1% 4.7% 1.8% 1.3% 1.2%

Other 31.7% 21.8% 29.6% 22.5% 21.7%


Shipment share by China player, 1Q13-1Q14

• China smartphone players’ proportions in the country’s overall

shipments

• White-box players (Other) are seeing dropping shipment

proportion and relatively caused IDHs in southern China to

suffer from difficult operation, while IDHs in eastern China

with partnerships with first-tier and second-tier brand

vendors to design and manufacture mid-range and entry-

level smartphones for China’s tier-3 and below cities as well

as overseas emerging markets, are seeing steady shipment

growths.

36


China players’ shipments, 2013

China players’ share of worldwide smartphone


38

2012

WW smartphone

shipments

685.1

2013(e)

WW smartphone

shipments

958.8

■ China players

■ Other players Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data Tracker customers

China players’ share of worldwide smartphone


• Worldwide smartphone shipments grew 40% on year

to reach 959 million units in 2013 and China players

contributed 315 million units, up 62.4% from 193

million units in 2012.

• China smartphone players’ combined shipments

enjoyed a higher growth than that of global shipments,

showing China brand vendors were the one benefited

the most from the local market. The growth is partly

benefited from China players’ complete supply chain,

strong R&D ability and cost management.

39


China smartphone shipments: Export

shipments and share, 2012-2013 (m units)

40

2012

China smartphone

shipments

193.9

2013(e)

China smartphone

shipments

314.8

■ China

■ Overseas

markets Content only for DIGITIMES Research Data

Tracker customers

China smartphone shipments: Export

shipments and share, 2012-2013 (m units)

• China players’ overseas shipments grew significantly by 137% on year to reach over almost 96

million units in 2013.

• Smartphone demand in China turned weak in the second half of 2013 and to maintain their

shipment volumes, most of them have turned to push overseas markets.

• Because smartphone players had been enhancing their product specifications rapidly throughout

2013 to boost their devices’ attraction, to quickly digest their old inventories, in addition to

China’s tier-3 and below cities, first-tier players had also been selling the inventories to overseas

emerging markets such as India, Russia and countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America,

which relatively increased their overseas shipments in 2013.

• The shipments to overseas emerging markets also helped first-tier players to digest most of their

inventories at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

41


Shipments and Y/Y growth by player, 2013 (m units)

39.2 38.8 30.5 27.3 18.4 16.1 15.7 14.4 12.4 10.5 9.4 82.1

23.7%

54.0%

33.2%

-7.1%

153.4%

149.6%

128.2%

73.5%

95.6%

209.6%

129.3%

95.5%

-50%

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

0

20

40

60

80

100

Shipments Y/Y

42


Shipments and Y/Y growth by player, 2013 (m units)

• CoolPad surpassed ZTE and became the third-largest

smartphone player in China in 2013.

• Tianyu enjoyed a giant shipment growth in 2013, but because

its financial crisis has not seen any improvement since the

second half, the company may be in danger of being eliminated

from the smartphone industry.

43


Overall shipment share by player, 2012-2013

44

16.3%

15.2%

13.0%

11.8%

4.3%

3.3%

3.5%

3.3% 3.7% 2.1%

1.7% 21.7%

12.5% 8.7%

12.3%

9.7%

4.6% 5.1% 5.0% 3.9%

5.8%

3.0%

3.3%

26.1%

2012

2013(e)

■ Huawei

■ ZTE

■ Lenovo

■ CoolPad

■ Gionee

■ TCL

■ Oppo

■ BBK

■ Xiaomi

■ Hisense

■ Tianyu

■ Other


Overall shipment share by player, 2012-2013

• Among the first-tier players (Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE and

CoolPad), only Huawei and Lenovo’s market share remained

above 10%, while CoolPad only accounted for close to 10% and

ZTE 9% in 2013.

• Outside the first-tier players, Xiaomi and TCL had grew

strongly and accounted for over 5% of China’s total shipments

in 2013. The rise of the second-tier vendors are gradually

becoming a threat against the first-tier players.

45


Documents

China Smartphone Tracker, 1Q14 - DigiTimes · China first-tier smartphone players – Lenovo, Huawei, CoolPad and ZTE –started releasing new smartphones in the fourth quarter of