China’s smartphone market is getting saturated

CEO Tim Cook partially blamed weaker than expected iPhone sales at the end of last year on the country’s slowing economy and its ongoing trade war with the United States. But Apple (AAPL) and its biggest competitors are also struggling against an overall decline in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

Smartphone sales in China declined 8% in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research. Canalys, another research firm, estimated an even steeper drop of around 15% in the same quarter.