Smartphone market down 6% in first quarter as Huawei takes second place from Apple, again

[midian182]

In brief: The latest IDC report on the state of the smartphone market has been released, showing that the industry was down 6.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter. And while Samsung and Apple saw their shipments fall, it was a good period for Huawei, which has once again passed Apple to take the second-largest share of the market.

Total shipments for Q1 2019 stood at 310.8 million units, down from 332.7 million units a year earlier. Despite its YoY change declining 8.1 percent, Samsung still held on to the number one spot with a 23.1 percent market share.

It was an even worse quarter for Apple. The iPhone maker's shipments fell from 52.2 million units to 36.4 million. Big rival Huawei, on the other hand, saw its numbers jump by almost 20 million units compared to a year earlier. The tech firms spent 2018 swapping between the number two and number three positions, but the Chinese company is now above Apple once again.

Huawei’s success comes despite its ongoing battle with the US government. If it weren’t for the company shipping 59.1 million smartphones during the last quarter, up from 39.9 million in Q1 2018, the industry would be looking even less healthy.

With 71.9 million shipments, Samsung remains at the head of the pack. It controls almost a quarter of the market but Huawei is catching up. The Korean firm's recently posted quarterly profits were down 60 percent, but that was due to weak chip performance—it said the Galaxy S10 phones “logged solid sales.”

“It is becoming increasingly clear that Huawei is laser focused on growing its stature in the world of mobile devices, with smartphones being its lead horse,” IDC program vice president Ryan Reith said in a statement. “The overall smartphone market continues to be challenged in almost all areas, yet Huawei was able to grow shipments by 50%, not only signifying a clear number two in terms of market share but also closing the gap on the market leader Samsung. This new ranking of Samsung, Huawei, and Apple is very likely what we’ll see when 2019 is all said and done.”

Main image credit: Kārlis Dambrāns via Flickr

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79887-smartphone-market-down-6-first-quarter-huawei-takes.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Really not a fan of either brand ..... cell phones are getting a bit like electrical vehicles in that nobody is really building a model that is "for the masses". That is to say, one that costs no higher than $250. Now, there are those phones out there but they tend to be 4-6 generations behind the current models. Still, having used my old Moto, it continues to work great, holds a charge for more than a day, and takes just about every app available on the android platform........

 

[xxLCxx]

... nobody is really building a model that is "for the masses". That is to say, one that costs no higher than $250. ...

The Honor Play is a popular one that has it all (super fast, including 4k video). If you take less known manufacturers into consideration, then there are also tons with Mediathek chipsets for less money.

 

[Mithan]

I just bought a S10 Plus, first new phone in 3.5 years to replace my Samsung Note 5, which was an excellent phone. If the phone itself wasn't starting to fail (microphone and speaker wearing out, apps draining the battery, screen burn in, etc), I would have kept it for another year easily.

I am hoping to get 3-4 years out of the S10 Plus. The years before that I was upgrading every year or two to take advantage of the huge improvements. Now? ...

My point is, these phones are not advancing enough anymore to demand a compelling reason to upgrade for most users. You get incremental updates each year, etc, etc.

Unless your phone breaks, chances are that your phone will run what you need your phone for, which for most users is going to be talking, texting, some video conferencing type software like Facetime/Messenger/Viber, Youtube and a few other apps. You don't need a new phone every year for that anymore. The batteries can even be replaced easily now after year 2 or 3 when your Lion battery is down to 40-50% capacity.

The early days saw huge improvements, just like the PC did between 1990 to 2010, when you could upgrade almost every component every 12-18 months for real, tangible improvements. The last 10 years of PC gaming were basically 2 CPU upgrades for most users and a couple GPU upgrades... The last 2 years for phones have been the same.

Cell phones are a part of our life now, but they are a commodity. Even the cheap crap will soon be good and the top end crap will just have bolted on features that nobody cares about, like Samsung trying to release a vertical new TV. Except for a few people, nobody cares.

 

[EClyde]

One of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated.