Smartphone shipments in China fell sharply in May, declining 25.3 per cent year-on-year to 35.4 million units, with overall handset shipments in the country down 5.9 per cent in the first five months of the year.

Total shipments of mobile phones in China in May fell 25.5 per cent compared with May 2016 to 37.4 million units, according to the latest figures from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). In the first five months of 2017, overall handset shipments fell to 197 units.

Smartphones accounted for 95 per cent of domestic mobile phone shipments in May, with nearly 79 per cent Android-based models, C114.net reported.

Domestic-brand handset shipments fell 24.7 per cent year-on-year in May to 34.2 million units, accounting for nearly 92 per cent of total shipments in China. For the January to May period, shipments of local-brand handsets dropped 3.6 per cent to 178 million units, the CAICT report said.

Sluggishness in the China smartphone market so-far in 2017 contrasts with the global smartphone market, which posted better-than-expected growth in Q1, as shipments increased 4.3 per cent year-on-year to 347.4 million units, according to IDC.