Smartphone market begins shift to 5G

China's smartphone market officially entered the transitional period of shifting from 4G to 5G, with shipments of phones in the country dropping 6.3 percent in June year-on-year, a new report said on Friday.

Shipments of phones in China hit 34.31 million units in June, according to a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

The decline came as the first batch of 5G smartphones in China is scheduled to hit the market by the end of July.

According to the report, only 27 new smartphone models were unveiled in June, a decline of 52.6 percent year-on-year.