It’s no secret that the Chinese smartphone market is exploding right now but there are still a few oddities that smartphone manufacturers within the country haven’t been able to sort out. One of these is the fact that Chinese citizens pretty much refuse to buy smartphones that cost more than around $480, but only from local companies.
China’s smartphone market is hot and getting hotter, and over the last couple of years we’ve seen domestic companies rise to the top of the sales charts. True, Apple grabbed the China smartphone crown in this most recent quarter on the back of its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch, but on a broader time scale Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo are the kings of China’s smartphone market. But the rise of Chinese brands in the smartphone market does have its limit. There is one place that Chinese brands, at least for the moment, simply can’t go. One barrier that no one has been able to successfully break. That barrier? RMB 3,000.