BEIJING, July 4 (Reuters) - Sales of foreign-branded

mobile phones in China, including those from Apple Inc ( AAPL ),

decreased by 9.7% in May, according to data released by a

government-affiliated research company on Friday.

Shipments of foreign branded phones including Apple ( AAPL ) iphones

were down to 4.54 million handsets for the month, Reuters

calculations based on the data from the China Academy of

Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed.