Price war looms as smartphone market booms

China's big players are gearing up for a price war in the high-end smartphone sector, and the only big winner will be the consumer.

Xiaomi Corp, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp's Nubia have all rolled out new products in what has been dubbed the "Godzilla" handset business, as they battle to wrestle away more market share from South Korean-based giant Samsung.

"By introducing premium devices, the average price of high-end smartphones will be dragged down," Antonio Wang, an analyst with the United States-based market research company IDC in Beijing, said. "This will benefit consumers."