SHANGHAI: Smartphone shipments to China fell 27% in October compared with the same month last year, according to government data released on Friday.
Figures suggest demand for phones is weak despite China’s recovery after novel coronavirus and that Apple Inc and its local rivals, such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, will compete in a shrinking market.
Phone makers shipped 25 million phones in October, up from 34.6 million a year earlier, according to the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technologies (CAICT), a state-backed think tank .
This follows an annual decline of 36% in September, to 22 million from 34.7 million in September 2019.
Data from third-party research companies revealed that Apple and Huawei both saw shipments drop year on year in Q3 2020
The two companies launched new flagship handsets in October.
Analysts remain optimistic that the two devices will be received in the near term, although the continuing recession suggests that general market trends for the sector will not reverse.
Retail outlets in China have largely reopened following a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus unlike some other countries.
Apple and its competing smartphone brands do not publicly publish regional shipments.
