Chinese Smartphone Market Facing Slowdown: Survey

The slowdown has major implications not only for Apple and Samsung as well as China's homegrown phone makers like Xiaomi Corp.

"The smartphone market in China is basically now just the very high end like Apple or the very low end. It is getting tough for those in the middle," Charles Lin, chief financial officer of Pegatron Corp which manufactures smartphones for Apple and some Chinese brands, was quoted as saying.

Xiaomi, started five years ago, is now valued at $46 billion. Last week, it unveiled Note Pro, a phone about the size of the iPhone 6 Plus and costing about $480.

"We will keep pursuing our mission to make high-quality, high-performance phones at affordable prices for our customers," a Xiaomi spokeswoman was quoted as saying in the report.

"While there are signs that the explosive growth of smartphones in China will slow this year, the vast majority of China's 885 million mobile users are using low-end and mid-range smartphones," Samsung said in a statement.

"This leaves plenty of room for upgrades to high-end phones as China's market matures," it added.
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