China’s smartphone market is cooling, falling 4 per cent in Q4, but managed to expand 3.3 per cent last year to a record 438 million units, according to figures from Strategy Analytics.

That low single-digit growth compares with a 12 per cent jump in global smartphone shipments last year to 1.4 billion units.

China’s smartphone shipments in Q4 dropped to 117.9 million units from 123 million from the same period in 2014. Strategy Analytics director Linda Sui said growth is slowing due to market saturation, inventory build and economic headwinds.

While the overall market in China has weakened, the top five players saw their shipments increase 41 per cent last year and accounted for 57 per cent of the total market (up from 49 per cent in 2014). Outside the top five, shipments dropped 24 per cent in 2015.

Fast-growing Huawei shipped the most units in China in Q4 but Xiaomi retained its top spot for the full year with a 15.4 per cent share (see chart below, click to enlarge).

China smartphone 2015
Huawei was number two after boosting shipments 50 per cent to 62.2 million units last year. It expanded its market share from 9.7 per cent in 2014 to 14.2 per cent, just 1.2 percentage points behind Xiaomi, which saw shipments rise just 17 per cent to 67.5 million units.

Apple posted the strongest growth last year, with shipments jumping 59 per cent to 49.5 million units. It strengthened its third place position by expanding its market share 4 percentage points to 11.3 per cent over the past year.

Vivo maintained its fourth place ranking, slightly ahead of Oppo, by expanding smartphone shipments 52 per cent to 36.7 million units in 2015. Vivo’s market share rose to 8.4 per cent from 5.7 per cent the previous year.

Oppo broke into the top five for the first time as shipments increased 49 per cent to 33.2 million units year-on-year.