Rewind the clock a few years ago, and the smartphone market was largely dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, and Sony. However over the years, Chinese OEMs have managed to ramp things up considerably by introducing an avalanche of products that are comparable in performance, but sometimes at half the price.
This has led to many Chinese brands dominating markets that companies like Apple and Samsung have typically flourished in. However it seems that nothing lasts forever because according to a report from DigiTimes, various Chinese OEMs such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and LeEco are apparently looking to cut back on component orders in Q1 2017.
While China is indeed a massive market with huge potential, it seems that the market is already saturated not just with phones from local companies, but also foreign ones from the likes of Apple and Samsung. This by no means indicates that any of these companies are in trouble, but rather it is just them reacting to the market and situation as it is.
In fact a recent report has also revealed that Apple could potentially be looking to cut back production as well by as much as 10% in the first quarter of the new year, so this shouldn’t really be that surprising. However both LeEco and Xiaomi have plans to launch in the US, so if successful production could ramp back up again to meet the demand in the new markets.