BEIJING, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Sales of foreign-branded

smartphones, including Apple Inc's ( AAPL ) iPhone, in China

fell 12.7% in August year-on-year, according to data released on

Wednesday from a government-affiliated research firm.

Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of

Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that

during the month, sales of foreign-branded phones in China fell

to 1.87 million handsets, down from 2.142 million a year

earlier.

Overall phone sales in China increased 26.7% from a year

earlier to 24.05 million handsets in August, the CAICT data

showed.