mobiles phones manufacturers may struggle to do business in China this year because the nation's smartphones market will become highly saturated, analysts from research firm Gartner Inc warned.

 

C.K. Lu, a principal analyst with Gartner who follows the consumer electronics industry, said China witnessed strong smartphones growth in recent years. Smartphones sales to end users exceeded 82 percent of the total mobiles device sales in the third quarter of 2013.

 

Lu expects the smartphones penetration rate may even reach 90 percent this year. "The Chinese smartphones market is getting saturated. That means mobiles phones companies are finding it hard to maintain steady growth in China starting in 2014," he pointed out.

 

Lu made the remarks during a news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

 

Gartner forecasts that almost 443.5 million mobiles phoness will be sold in China in 2014, with the total number of mobiles phoness in use reaching more than 1.075 billion.

 

The country is expected to sell 395 million smartphoness this year, accounting for 31.5 percent of the world's total smartphones sales.

 

But the tougher competition environment will not usher in a bloody reshuffle in the Chinese smartphones market. "Various mobiles phones companies will find ways to survive because they are really resilient," Lu said.

 

According to a survey of middle-class buyers in China, brand and customer care are the top two IT purchasing factors. Even for low-end devices, quality and design are equally important.

 

"The survey confirms that Chinese customers do not want just low-cost or inexpensive products, but a product that offers value for money, brand strength and good customer care," Lu said.

 

"Vendors can no longer treat China as one of the emerging markets in which a focus on low price is enough to grow market share," he added.

 

The premium phones segment is expected to enjoy the highest growth in China over the next five years. In 2014, premium phoness are expected to comprise 20 percent of sales, growing to almost 32 percent in 2017, Gartner said.

 

Shenzhen-based TCL Corp rose unexpectedly in the global smartphones market last year, according to Gartner. TCL nearly doubled its smartphones shipments every quarter in 2013.

 

Its smartphones shipments were about 16 million worldwide last year, Gartner said.

 

"Strong demand of carriers in emerging markets will allow the company to be one of the fastest-growing smartphones companies in 2014," Lu said. He estimated that TCL might even enter the first tier, narrowing the gap with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Lenovo Group Ltd in the domestic market this year.

 

Lenovo and another company, Coolpad, may face strong challenges in the mobiles phones business in 2014, Lu said.

 

"Because their overseas expansion is limited, in the domestic market they have to use price advantages and sacrifice profits to gain a bigger share," Lu said.