Is the Chinese Smartphone Market already mature?

From an IDC press release we can see, through the figure below, that after 9 consecutive quarters of impressive growth, making China one of the top smartphone market in the world in 2013 Q4 we can see the first slow down. The numbers say that in such Quarter 90.8 million units has been shipped compared to 94.8 million in 2013 Q3, declining by 4.3% quarter on quarter. As we can see, these are still huge numbers, considering for example that India Market that is the number three in the World in 2013 and sees 15.06 Million of Smartphones shipped, but it is anyway a signal that even if is too early to warn it is interesting follows in the next months.

From Engadget’s guys and still IDC we can see that the Chinese Market is dominated by Android (it is not explicited but we can consider this as a reasonable assumption) from OS point of view and in detail by Samsung with 19% if we consider the Manufacturers. Lenovo in Q4 2013 has a good second place with 13% and after the acquisition of Motorola Mobile it is interesting to see in future if this will impact in market share. Coolpad, not so much known in Europe but the 3rd largest smartphone company in China and sixth-largest worldwide, has a good 11% of such big Market, and Huawei, that it is now an important player also in Europe, has the 10%. Apple with its 7% is waiting for the result of the launch with China Mobile.

Xiaomi, that in my opinion is one of the most interesting Manufacturer in Android environment is in the “other” sector considering PRC market and with a 3% considering Taiwan.

Last, let’s see the lack of Nokia in the pie graph and Nokia in the past was a very important vendor in China. We’ll see if the Normandy/Nokia X that is expected to be presented in MWC, Barcelona in the next week will move the market in the near future.

4K and Auto are the 2014 CES Iconic Words

Engadget’s CES 2014 preview talks about what we’ll see in the next days. This year, excluding the already commented Wereable Devices,  the iconic terms can be summarized in 4K and Auto.

Ultra HD 4K is the trend that the major TV companies will push this year in the stores. Last year Sony presented one of the first ultra HD TV, the very well-reviewed Sony XBR-X900 and soon other manufacturers presented their solution from the cheapest Chinese players to Korean to Panasonic (that in meantime ended its best in class Plasmas). If last year you di asked about the trend and near future of TVs I’m pretty sure that the answer was OLED, but after an year it seems that the TV makers would delay the OLED revolution. Engadget guys don’t exclude it, but for some reasons (e.g. the panel life) I think that the 4K will be the mainstream solution for the next two year’s leaving OLED for the high-end niche, but we’ll see.

The other CES icon word I would say that will be auto meaning the in-car entertainment and driving solution. I hope this will be real because I think that up to now the Car makers didn’t shown their potential offering displays and UI experience not at the same level offered by the current Tables. Audi is the brand that probably will drive the sector in Las Vegas and it announced a partnership with Google for using Android in its infotainment systems as reported by CNET. In the meantime the CES floor square occupied by Car Makers grew up 25 percent from last year and it sounds good.

Ok guys, the CES will start in very few days and will see.