As it is one of the world’s biggest countries in both its population and economy, it should hardly surprise that China is also among the world’s biggest smartphone markets. And Apple have just topped that market; according to figures recently published by the International Data Corporation, the Cupertino company took 14.7% of that market in 2015’s first quarter, ahead of Xiaomi with its 13.7% share.
China’s smartphone market is fiercely competitive, to the extent that the previous five quarters has seen it topped by four different companies. These companies have included not only Xiaomi, but also Samsung and Lenovo, the two companies which followed Huawei – a smartphone maker owned by the Chinese government – in the descending list of successful smartphone sellers in the latest quarter.
However, Apple is one of the three of these companies that saw its smartphone shipments rise, rather than fall, during the quarter. This is an impressive achievement considering that the total number of smartphones shipped actually fell from the corresponding number of last year’s first quarter, a trend which suggests that the market is becoming saturated.