China's smartphone shipments grew 8% year-on-year to a record 117.3 million in the fourth quarter, despite the ongoing slowdown in the market, IDC has estimated.
The solid fourth quarter results helped shipment growth reach 3% for the full year, the research firm said.
Huawei was the biggest winner in the fourth quarter with both the biggest gain in shipment growth and in average selling prices. The company shipped 17.9 million smartphones during the quarter, giving it a market share of 15.2%.
But for the full year, Xiaomi was on top with a market share of 15% and shipment volumes of 64.9 million. Huawei was close behind with a market share of 14.5% and shipments of 62.9 million.
Third-placed Apple had the biggest full-year growth of the top five vendors, with shipment volumes up 56% year-on-year to 58.4 million. The company had a 13.4% market share for the year.
Rounding out the top five were OPPO and vivo with shipment volumes of 35.3 million and 35.1 million respectively.
There has been a significant shake-up in the market over the past two years, according to IDC APAC senior market analyst for client devices Tay Xiaohan.
“Xiaomi, Huawei and Apple are the top smartphone players in 2015. This is a stark contrast to the top players in 2013, which were Samsung, Lenovo and Coolpad – with Samsung clearly dominating other players,” she said.
“With operators reducing smartphone subsidies and given the volatility of consumers’ brand preference in the market, the smartphone scene has changed significantly since then.”
Tay said Xiaomi entered China's smartphone market at a time when it was still growing, allowing the company to rapidly capture significant market share.
“With the Chinese market now slowing down, it is unlikely that we will see any new players making a big impact on the smartphone market compared to the way Xiaomi did in the previous years,” she said.