The Economist

Chinese phonemakers are preparing to take on the world

Oct 25th 2014 | SHANGHAI | From the print edition

China’s handset manufacturers: Smartening up their act | The Economist

China’s smartphone-makers have a ready launchpad. Thanks to the frugal but feature-rich offerings from local firms, domestic sales have exploded. Over 100m smartphones were sold in the second quarter, accounting for over a third of global sales and making China the world’s largest market. Strikingly, eight of the top ten vendors were local firms. Xiaomi, a startup that only sells online, shot past Samsung to become the leading brand of smartphones in the country. After selling 15.4m in the second quarter (see chart), the firm is on track to peddle 60m handsets this year, and wants to sell 100m in 2015.