New Wearable Technology: In China for the first time, with falling sales of smartphones, but not Apple

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

In China for the first time, with falling sales of smartphones, but not Apple – Il Sole 24 Ore

History Article

This entry was posted on August 25, 2015 at 17:44.
The last change is the August 25, 2015 at 17:47.

The world market for smart phones continues to grow, but not at the levels of the recent past. And the leap backwards that refers to increases in demand in 2013, the last certificate signed report by Gartner, is essentially attributable to the slowdown of the Chinese market. Hands up those (many) bet on the ability of the Land of the Dragon can pull the global economy and the sector tecnlogici gadgets (mobile phones in particular) for decades. Well have to think again, at least in part.

Let’s try to clarify, as far as the handset business, with some numbers. According to the American research company, in the second quarter of 2015 we were sold worldwide 330 million mobile phones, for a 13.5% increase over the same period of 2014, and 30% ended up in China. But the question in the shadow of the Great Wall is close to saturation and recorded the first, albeit slight (we speak of 4%), decrease of its history. The new mobile users are almost completely gone, and in almost all cases, sales were fueled by the replacement market.

The phenomenon, with one exception which is called Apple, has pushed vendors to attack other basins of distribution for their products, both in the Asia-Pacific (excluding China, of course) and in Europe of ‘East, Middle East and Africa. Paradoxically, their Chinese companies those who are “taking advantage” of the changed trend in domestic demand: Huawei, the comparison between the second quarter of 2014 and the same period of 2015, gained 1.7 percentage points of market share (through about 26 million smartphones shipped worldwide from April to June) while Xiaomi 0.6%. Lenovo has instead lost still shots, which sold, according to data from Gartner, more than one and a half of the market share at the end of the second quarter.

We were saying the exception of Apple. During the reporting period, the house of Cupertino has delivered in terms of end customers in China about 12 million iPhone, an increase year on year of 68% and then taking advantage of the best factor “high end” to the detriment of the products (Android) and profit margins of the competition. Analysts summarized the scenario once again favored the strategy of Cupertino: many companies have been forced to realign their catalogs to remain competitive in the medium and low bands and this shift has triggered a downward price war aimed at end inventory and make room for new devices planned for the second half of 2015.

In this new scenario, the company’s Apple is betting strong on China, a market identified as the next stage of growth to continue ( successfully) the endless distance warfare with Samsung. The rest was himself CEO Tim Cook to confirm, in an email sent recently to the television channel CNBC, the acceleration of sales recorded in China in recent weeks despite concerns over the slowdown of the second economy in the world and to the devaluation the yuan.

The former right-hand man Steve Jobs talked about “performance so far reassuring” and data from Gartner which has been reported seem to support these considerations. China, in short, has not been the bane of Apple as some speculated Cassandre but, at least for the moment, it is on the contrary a great opportunity for the consolidation of its ecosystem. If there is a platform in the big Asian country will lose ground in the race for the updating of the park installed smartphone, analysts say, this is Android.

The Chinese market, as stated, is virtually saturated, but it is for older 3G phones; the conversion to 4G, and then the race to purchase more powerful terminals to access online services, constitutes the segment most important sales. And it is on this front that Apple wants to win his new battle in the presence of a Samsung, China, highlighted passages vacuum not indifferent.

But there is a possible downside for Apple. And it is closely tied to the fate of the Chinese economy. His striking and prolonged slowdown – but few believe in this possibility – could limit the development of the activities of Cupertino in the country. The risk of a business zero growth in the quarter ending in late September, however, is somewhat reduced, even in view of the imminent launch of the new iPhone and the arrival (still unconfirmed) new Apple TV. The well-informed about financial fortunes of the giant California speak of an increase in revenues on Chinese soil in the order of 20% year over year. And if so would be yet another record result for entry in the budget.