Skip to main content

The Smart Connected Device Market Outlook for China

During 2014, China will remain one of the leading high-growth markets for digital technology. The Chinese Smart Connected Device (SCD) market grew by 45 percent in the third quarter of 2013, according to the latest market study by IDC.

However, segment growth was mixed. The market growth rate of smartphones was 64 percent, media tablets were at 77 percent -- but, in contrast, PCs declined by -12 percent.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Smart Connected Device Tracker provides an integrated view of three important digital technology markets: Personal computers (notebooks and desktops), smartphones, and media tablets. According to the IDC study findings, overall 2013 saw fast growth for the SCD market in China.

"2013 was a game changing year. The consumer SCD install base reached 780 million at the end of 2013, tripling the number of two years ago," said Kitty Fok, managing director at IDC China.

In the future, the China SCD market is going to move from an explosive growth phase into a more matured development phase. But the changes on product, market, application and technology will not slow down.

IDC also predicts that by the end of 2017, the total consumer SCD install base will reach 1.2 billion, while that of all SCD will reach 1.4 billion units.

IDC's Predictions and Online Poll Results are as follows:

  • The Chinese SCD market will grow by 17 percent and the PC market will start to recover with the annual growth rate of -1.4 percent during 2014. (online poll support: 92 percent).
  • A total of 130 million 4G smartphones will be shipped out to the market in 2014. (online poll support: 61 percent).
  • The ecosystem of domestic IT vendors will continue to improve. (online poll support: 89 percent).
  • The Chinese rural market will see the penetrated deployment of smart connected devices in 2014. (online poll support: 85 percent).
  • Device screens will increase in size as a whole. (online poll support: 94 percent).
  • The percentage of tablets with call function will account for 35 percent of the total tablet shipment. (online poll support: 67 percent).
  • The percentage of smartphones embedded with near-field communication (NFC) technology will account for 15 percent of the total shipment. (online poll support: 77 percent).
  • The battle to seize the living room device market will get started. (online poll support: 89 percent).
  • The tier 1-3 markets will experience growing consumption and tier 4-6 markets will see dropping prices. (online poll support: 96 percent).
  • Channel inventory will be reduced to a reasonable level during the third and fourth quarters of 2014; the percentage of online channel and telecom operator's package bundle will continue to increase. (online poll support: 95 percent).

As for channel development in China, it's expected that more traditional channels will launch their own online selling platforms and thus the online and offline channels will be integrated. The telecom operators are now increasing their sales targets on bundling sales, thereby increasing their influence.

After seeing fast growth of the smart connected devices and aggressive sales targets set by the manufacturers, the channel's excess inventory in 2013 became a problem. The inventories of PC, smartphone and tablet have already reached unreasonable levels.

According to IDC's assessment, it will take around two to three quarters in 2014 before pressure is discharged from the smart connected device channel's excess inventory challenges.

Popular posts from this blog

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year