BEIJING (Reuters) -Shipments of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple Inc’s iPhone, in China fell 21% in January year-on-year, according to Reuters’ calculations based on data released on Monday by a government-affiliated research firm. Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that during the month shipments of foreign-branded phones in China decreased to 4.398 million units from 5.542 million units a year earlier.
As the largest foreign phone maker in China’s smartphone-dominated market, Apple’s performance plays a significant role in the overall data on foreign-branded phone shipments in the country.
Overall phone sales in China decreased by 14.3% to 27.24 million units in January, CAICT data showed.
(Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
