China smartphone sales fall for first time - Gartner.

(Reuters) - Smartphone sales in China, the world's biggest market for the devices, fell in the second quarter for the first time, market research firm Gartner Inc said on Thursday.

Sales of smartphones in China declined 4 percent in the quarter, the first year-over-year fall, the company said.

"China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

The country accounted for about 30 percent of total smartphones sales during the second quarter, according to the report.

Gartner also said worldwide smartphone sales grew at the slowest pace since 2013.


Full story at Yahoo News.
(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)