Global smartphone shipments fell by 2.4% year-on-year from 253.8 million units to 345.4 million units in first-quarter 2018, according to a report by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service.
“The global smartphone market has slowed down this year, due to longer replacement rates, diminishing carrier subsidies, and a lack of new hardware design innovation,” notes Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.
Samsung recaptured first position with 23% marketshare, while Apple grew slightly to 15%. Huawei and Xiaomi performed best among the major players, both hitting record marketshare.
“Samsung shipped 78.2 million smartphones worldwide in Q1/2018, dipping 2% annually from 80.2 million units in Q1/2017,” says executive director Neil Mawston. Samsung recaptured first place this quarter, after losing top spot to Apple in the previous Q4/2017 holiday season. “Samsung is holding steady in its core markets of North America, Western Europe and South Korea, but the company is facing intense competitive pressure in China and India from rivals such as Xiaomi,” he adds.
Apple grew an above-average 3% annually to 52.2 million smartphones shipped, yielding 15% marketshare in Q1/2018. iPhone shipments have grown year-on-year in three of the past four quarters. “Apple’s ultra-premium iPhone X is proving relatively popular in some markets like China and the USA, while there remains scope for additional expansion in emerging regions such as India and Africa,” says Mawston.
Huawei maintained third position, growing by 14% year-on-year, from 10% marketshare a year ago to a record 11% in Q1/2018. “Despite political headwinds in North America, Huawei gained momentum across all other regions in the rest of the world, with popular new models such as the Honor 7X,” says Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics.
Xiaomi’s smartphones shipments soared by 125% year-on-year to 28.3 million, outperforming all its major rivals and jumping to fourth place as it doubled its marketshare from 4% a year ago to a record 8% in Q1/2018. “Xiaomi is expanding like wildfire across Asia, particularly in India,” notes Sui.
Hit hard by Xiaomi’s rapid retail expansion and Huawei’s much-improved Android device portfolio, OPPO slipped to fifth place, as its marketshare fell from 8% a year ago to 7% in Q1/2018.
