(MENAFN - Asia Times) China has produced 1.9 billion mobile phones in 2017, a 1.6% rise from a year earlier. The growth rate, however, has dropped 18.7% from 2016, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information, reported.

About 1.4 out of 1.9 billion were smartphones, accounting for 74.3% of the total output of mobile phones.

From the global perspective, total shipments to the world's smartphone market reached 1.47 billion units, a less than 1% decrease from a year earlier.

The International Data Corporation thinks the declines in both the Chinese and US markets during the fourth quarter of 2017 led to the decrease.

Consumers do not seem eager to upgrade to the latest generation of high-priced equipment, if their phone is already working well.

As for phone makers, Apple surpassed Samsung to rank first in terms of global shipments. Huawei remains in the third place and Xiaomi took OPPO's place to rank fourth. Noticeably, Xiaomi has achieved a 96.9% increase in its shipments amid the overall decline of the other four vendors.

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