Digitimes Research's study of the smartphone supply chain and market in China shows that first-quarter 2018 smartphone shipments to the China market fell below 90 million units, down 34% on quarter and 13.4% on year due to a number of reasons.

Digitimes Research estimates total shipments of smartphone application processors (AP) worldwide will grow 1.5% on year to 1.67 billion units in 2018. The slowing growth in the smartphone market means global smartphone AP shipments will only grow at a mild pace in the next few years, reaching 1.77 billion units in 2021. The report shows that Qualcomm will continue reigning at No. 1 in terms of vendor rankings in 2018, followed by MediaTek. But in-house-developed chips by Apple, Samsung, and Huawei (Hisilicon) will see their share of shipments grow to almost 30% in 2018.

China-based smartphone vendors shipped a total of 199.8 million phones to both the domestic and overseas markets in the fourth quarter of 2017, up nearly 10% on quarter but only showing a single digit growth from the corresponding period of 2016.

China-based smartphone makers shipped a total of 179.2 million phones in the third quarter of 2017, down 0.4% on year and up 20.8% on quarter. The top five vendors in terms of shipment volumes were Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, BBK and Lenovo.

Digitimes Research estimates smartphone shipments to the China market in the second quarter of 2017 totaled 94.1 million units, maintaining a similar level to that seen in the first quarter of 2017 but down 11.8% on year.

This Digitimes Research Special Report examines the China AMOLED industry, focusing on the expansion capacity of the makers, the current implementation plans of major smartphone vendors in the market and the technological hurdles faced by China's makers.

Total shipments of China-based smartphone makers in first-quarter 2017 were 134.30 million units, representing flat growth compared to first-quarter 2016 and showing an on-quarter drop of 28.8%.

Digitimes Research estimates overall fourth-quarter 2016 shipments from China-based smartphone firms were 181.8 million units with an on-quarter increase of 4.4% and an on-year increase of 12.8%.

Digitimes Research expects global application processor (AP) shipments to increase more than 8% in 2017 and surpass the 1.9 billion mark, with smartphones remaining the main application. After slumping in 2015, Qualcomm returned to form in 2016 and will continue leading the market in 2017, as other players continue playing catch up and scramble for funds to invest in more diverse applications such as IoT and other smart end-device applications.

Smartphone shipments in the China market reached 112.3 million units in the third quarter, up 5.8% on year and 5.2% on quarter. China-based telecom carriers continued to offer subsidies to encourage existing 2G or 3G service users to switch to a 4G service and thus created strong demand for inexpensive 4G smartphones.

Smartphone shipments in the China market totaled 149 million units in the second quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 2.7% on quarter and 14.3% on year.

Total smartphone shipments by China-based vendors reached 128.6 million units in the first quarter of 2016, down 20.2% on quarter but up 33.3% on year.