Global smartphone sales witnesses first ever decline; Gartner Reports

Global smartphone sales witnesses first ever decline Gartner Reports. Huawei and Xiaomi Were the Only Vendors in the Top Five to Experience Growth in the Fourth Quarter

Worldwide sales of smartphones to end clients totaled almost 408 million units in the final quarter of 2017, a 5.6 percent decrease over the final quarter of 2016, as per Gartner, Inc. This is the main year-on-year decay since Gartner began following the worldwide smartphone advertise in 2004.

“Two main factors led to the fall in the fourth quarter of 2017,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “First, upgrades from feature phones to smartphones have slowed down due to a lack of quality “ultra-low-cost” smartphones and users preferring to buy quality feature phones. Second, replacement smartphone users are choosing quality models and keeping them longer, lengthening the replacement cycle of smartphones. Moreover, while demand for high quality, 4G connectivity and better camea features remained strong, high expectations and few incremental benefits during replacement weakened smartphone sales.”

Samsung Retains No. 1 Spot in Fourth Quarter of 2017

Samsung saw a year-on-year unit decrease of 3.6 percent in the final quarter of 2017, however this did not keep it from shielding its No. 1 worldwide smartphone vendor position against Apple (see Table 1).

Table 1

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q17 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (February 2018)

Notwithstanding the beginning of a decline in offers of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+, the general achievement of those models has helped Samsung enhance general normal offering cost. Samsung is ready to declare the successors to its Galaxy arrangement of smartphones at Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year. The dispatches of its next flagship gadgets are probably going to support Samsung’s smartphone deals in the primary quarter of 2018. Despite the fact that Samsung’s noteworthy deals volumes lean toward midprice and section level models, which now confront outrageous rivalry and lessening commitment, its benefit and normal offering cost may additionally enhance if these next flagship smartphones are successful.

While Apple’s market share stabilized in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter in 2016, iPhone sales fell 5 percent. “Apple was in a different position this quarter than it was 12 months before,” said Gupta. “It had three new smartphones — the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X — yet its performance in the quarter was overshadowed by two factors. First, the later availability of the iPhone X led to slow upgrades to iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, as users waited to try the more-expensive model. Second, component shortages and manufacturing capacity constraints preceded a long delivery cycle for the iPhone X, which returned to normal by early December 2017. We expect good demand for the iPhone X to likely bring a delayed sales boost for Apple in the first quarter of 2018,” added Gupta.

Huawei and Xiaomi — The Big Winners in Fourth Quarter of 2017

Huawei and Xiaomi were the only smartphone vendors to achieve year-on-year unit growth (7.6 and 79 percent, respectively) and grew market share in the quarter. With Huawei’s new smartphone additions in the quarter, including Mate 10 Lite, Honor 6C Pro and Enjoy 7S, the vendor broadened the appeal of its smartphones.

Xiaomi’s competitive smartphone portfolio, consisting of its Mi and Redmi models, helped accelerate its growth in the emerging Asia/Pacific (APAC) market. It also helped Xiaomi win back lost share in China.

“Future growth opportunities for Huawei will reside in winning market share in emerging APAC and the U.S.,” said Gupta. “Xiaomi’s biggest market outside China is India, where it will continue to see high growth. Increasing sales in Indonesia and other markets in emerging APAC will position Xiaomi as a strong global brand.”

In 2017 as a whole, smartphone sales to end users totaled over 1.5 billion units, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2016 (see Table 2). Huawei, ranked No. 3, raised its share in 2017, continuing to gain on Apple. At the same time, the combined market share of the Chinese vendors in the top five increased by 4.2 percentage points, while the market share of top two, Samsung and Apple, remained unchanged.

Table 2

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2017 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (February 2018)

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Google’s Android extended its lead by capturing 86 percent of the total market in 2017 (see Table 3). This is up 1.1 percentage points from a year ago. “The competition in the smartphone market is unabated at this time of the year,” said Gupta. “Ahead of MWC, several phone manufacturers such as Samsung, HMD (Nokia), Asus and LG have announced that they will launch new Android smartphones.”

Table 3

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2017 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (February 2018)