Q4 Smartphone Shipments in China Rose 16%, Fell 7.9% for 2014, Report Says

China, the world’s largest smartphone market, saw Q4 handset shipments reach 105 million, a 16 percent “sequential” increase from Q3, Bharat Book Bureau, the India-based market research firm, said Friday in a report. Overall smartphone shipments in China declined 7.9 percent for all of 2014 to 388.8 million units, the report said. Bharat estimates 248 models of smartphones from all suppliers were launched in China Q4, it said. Apple rode the “white hot” sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to the top market share position in China for Q4, when it shipped a total of 17.3 million iPhones of various models, it said. Supplier Xiaomi lagged only slightly behind Apple with 17 million units shipped Q4, it said. IDC has estimated that Xiaomi is the world’s third-largest distributor of smartphones behind Samsung and Apple.