China market: 500 million smartphones to be shipped in 2016, says Sigmaintell
Rebecca Kuo, Kunshan; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Friday 18 November 2016]
As China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have offered subsidies for purchasing smartphones to promote 4G subscriptions, 2016 smartphone shipments to the China market are expected to reach about 500 million units, growing 15% on year, according to Sigmaintell Consulting.
China Mobile’s 4G subscribers will take up 61% of all of its mobile communication subscribers in 2016 and the percentage will rise to 80% in 2017, Sigmaintell said.
However, smartphone shipments in the China market in 2017 will decrease to 480-490 million units mainly due to decreasing subsidies.
Global smartphone shipments will reach 1.405 billion units in 2016 (up 6.3% on year), and 1.48 billion units in 2017, with Southeast Asia and Latin America to be the main source of growth, Sigmaintell indicated.
In terms of handset applications, global shipment proportion for a-Si panels will drop from 48% in 2016 to 37% in 2017, while the proportion will rise from 30% to 35% for LTPS LCD panels and from 22% to 28% for AMOLED panels.
