Smartphone sales see decline worldwide
Global smartphone sales decreased 1.7 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year to 368 million units, down from 374 million units in the same period last year, research and advisory firm Gartner said on Wednesday.
The world’s top five vendors are Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, and OPPO. Among the top 5, Huawei and Samsung saw the biggest growth, with sales increases of 16.5 and 3.8 per cent, respectively.
Huawei’s sales surged 31 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 compared to the last quarter in the greater China area.
Samsung sold 75 million smartphones worldwide, with market share rising to 20.4 per cent in the second quarter of this year, up from 19.3 per cent in the same period last year.
Appple’s iPhone sold 38 million units in the second quarter of 2019 -- a 13.8 per cent year-on-year decline -- and market share accounted for 10.5 per cent of the world’s total, a slide of 1.4 percentage points from 11.9 per cent last year.
Total smartphone shipments in the Chinese market were 101 million units in the second quarter, up 0.5 per cent year-on-year. The figure was 10.8 million units in Brazil, a growth of 1.3 per cent year-on-year.
India sold 35.7 million smartphones in the second quarter, down 2.3 per cent year-on-year, with market share reaching 9.7 percent.
Global smartphone sales will remain weak for the rest of the year, Gartner said. In 2019, global smartphone sales will reach 1.5 billion units.
Moreover, sales of high-end smartphones will decline faster than other types, and smartphone makers are copying the high-end features of their flagship phones to lower-end models to attract users to renew their phones, Gartner said.