5G smartphone sales predicted to hit 180 million this year: MIIT

Some 180 million 5G smartphones are expected to be sold in China this year, and 59.9 million have already been sold as of May, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). 

Carriers including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have built 250,000 5G base stations nationwide, and will have 600,000 such stations by the end of 2020, said Lu Chuncun, vice director of the MIIT’s telecommunications division.

Saturday was also the one-year anniversary of the official launch of China's 5G networks.

Top vendors including Huawei, Vivo and Oppo have all launched 5G models. 

Oppo, the No. 3 smartphone brand in China, will stop introducing 4G models this year. Currently, its 5G devices start at 2,000 yuan (US$286), including the Find X2, Oppo Ace 2 and Oppo Reno 4, which will start sales on Friday with a starting price of 2,999 yuan.

Video production and distribution are now the hottest applications in the 5G era, which provide users much faster Internet access compared with 4G networks, industry official said.

Ti Gong