BEIJING (Reuters) - Shipments of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple Inc's iPhone, in China fell in November by 47.4% from a year earlier, according to data released on Friday 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, shipments of foreign-branded phones in China decreased to 3.04 million units, down from 5.769 million units a year earlier.

Shipments of phones within China in November fell 5.1% year-on-year to 29.61 million handsets.