| 1 | A customer look at a mobile phone on display at an electronics market in Shanghai, China, June 24, 2015. |
| 2 | (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. |
| 3 | Sales of smartphones in China declined 4 percent in the quarter, the first year-over-year fall, the company said. |
| 4 | "China has reached saturation - its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. |
| 5 | The country accounted for about 30 percent of total smartphones sales during the second quarter, according to the report. |
| 6 | Gartner also said worldwide smartphone sales grew at the slowest pace since 2013. |
| 7 | Still, Apple Inc's share of the worldwide smartphone sales market rose to 14.6 percent from 12.2 percent a year earlier. |
| 8 | Total iPhone sales in China soared 68 percent to 11.9 million units, Gartner said. |
| 9 | Apple's big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which shattered iPhone sales records when they were launched, are about 11 months old. |
| 10 | Rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's share of the global smartphone market fell to 21.9 percent from 26.2 percent, Gartner said. |
| 11 | Despite the new S6 models, which it released in April, Samsung's premium phones continued to be challenged by Apple's large-screen iPhones, the report said. |
| 12 | Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, [HWT.UL], the fourth-largest smartphone maker globally, recorded the highest sales growth rate of 46.3 percent due to strong international sales and 4G smartphone sales in China. |
| 13 | Apple's shares were down about 2 percent in early trading on the Nasdaq. |