It is to be noted that the final quarter of 2017 closed the year without adding much volatility to the worldwide smart phone market when compared to the more volatile 2016. As per the stats recently released in IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, smartphone vendors shipped a total of approximately 403.5 million units during the Q4 of 2017, highlighting a 6.3 percent depreciation when compared to the 430.7 million units shipped in the Q4 of the year 2016. Further, talking about the yearly records, the worldwide smartphone market witnessed a decline of less than 1 percent in the number of shipped units i.e., the number dropped to 1.472 billion units in 2017 from 1.473 billion units in the year 2016.
According to the researchers, the dip is credited to the shift to ultra-high-end flagships offered in 2017, because of which a lot of smart phone makers tried their luck in the luxury segment than being a necessity. For example, the bezel-less displays played a role of the trump card for all the phone makers, as they attracted the customers to the luxurious segment. The hype of new full-screen displays, advanced bio-metrics, and improved artificial intelligence have turned out to be a new defining factor for the standards set in the premium segment phones.
Besides, researchers also observed that 2017 has been a revolutionary year when most of the companies have offered their widest product ranges ever in hopes of seeking a greater audience looking forward to buying new technology. In the meantime, brands who can’t make it to the list of top 5 gave a tough fight to each other so as to maintain that pumping momentum. The pocket-friendly value brands such as Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi, and OPPO gallantly displayed tough fight at the lower end, and renowned brands like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei maintained their grip on the higher end. – quoted Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.
Once again, premium segment phone maker, Apple leads the smartphone market in the quarter, and its success has majorly been credited to the latest, much awaited, beautifully designed range of smartphones: iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X. However, despite being on the top of the ladder, IDC stated- “The company experienced a slight downfall from the previous holiday quarter as iPhone volumes reached 77.3 million units, a y-o-y decline of 1.3 percent in the sales.” Due, to the wide range of series it offered, it attracted more customers to choose a revolutionary product from the available range. Apple finished the year as the second top choice shipping around 215.8 million units, a slight increase from 215.4 million in 2016.
On the other hand, South Korean tech giant Samsung once again topped the charts in the worldwide smartphone market for 2017 despite losing out to Apple in the Q4. Reports roughly suggested the stats: the company shipped around 74.1 million units in Q4 in the year 2017, a steep downfall of 4.4 percent compared to the 77.5 million units from last year. As per the yearly stats, Samsung finished the year 2017 with 317.3 million shipments, a slight hike by 1.9 percent from the 311.4 million shipments in the year 2016.
Another contender in the list is Huawei which continues to hold the number three position in the list despite facing tough competition from growing Chinese players such as Oppo and Vivo. The company managed to ship 41.0 million units, a downturn of 9.7 percent from the 45.4 million shipped in the Q4 of 2016. Whereas, another bestseller Xiaomi managed to double its share to 7 percent from 3.3 percent during the Q4 2016- being the top relative profit maker!