According to the preliminary data from the International Data Corporation(IDC), Worldwide Quarterly mobile phone trackers, Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 334.3 million units during the Q1,2018 which resulted in 2.9% decline in the market as 334.4 million units were sold in Q1.2017.
The 100 million dipping of shipment volume in the Chinese market was the main reason for the resulted decline. This is the biggest decline which is observed after Q3,2013.
The associate research director with IDC’s worldwide Mobile device trackers. Melissa Chau said “Globally, as well as in China, a key bellwether, smartphone consumers are trading up to more premium devices, but there are no longer as many new smartphone converts, resulting in shipments dropping, When we look at it from a dollar value perspective, the smartphone market is still climbing and will continue to grow over the years to come as consumers are increasingly reliant on these devices for the bulk of their computing needs.”
Smartphone company Highlights :
Samsung, despite the 2.4% decline from Q1,2017, grabbed 24.3% share of the market and emerged as the leader. S9/9+ along with the last years S8/8+ added to the overall performance of Samsung. Outside of the new flagships, the A series and J series continued to drive most of the key volume in both developed and emerging markets.
Apple witnessed a 2.8% year – over- year increase as the premium smartphone makers shipped 52.2 million units which were 50.8 million last year.Despite rumors of an underperforming iPhone X in the quarter, Apple stated that the iPhone X was the most popular model each week in the March quarter. Rumors say that Apple will come with a mid-tier smartphone and new bezel-less smartphone in about September which boosts the performance of the company.
Huawei managed in slowly upscaling its brand image in international markets as they clinched a new market share high of 11.8% and grabbed the third spot in the smartphone market. Huawei is trying to mold itself to offer midrange budget smartphones to the users and to create a strong market share. Huawei also reintroduced its Honor brand in a couple of markets in Southeast Asia, where the high-end P series and Mate series are less popular.
Xiaomi has performed as a strong contender in smartphone market outside of China and by offering their mid-tier smartphones like NOTE 5 and NOTE 5 pro, Xiaomi continues its retail expansion in India and Southeast Asia.In its commitment to the “Make in India” campaign, Xiaomi also recently announced PCB assembly in India, becoming the second vendor after Samsung to do so.