Sam Oliver
Global smartphone shipments increased by nearly 25 percent year-over-year, new data released Tuesday indicates, with Chinese vendors accounting for the lion's share of the growth at the expense of established heavyweights Apple and Samsung.
Despite moving some 35 million iPhone units in the second quarter, Apple's slice of the smartphone market shrunk from 13 percent one year ago to 11.9 percent in the most recent period, according to market research firm IDC. Rival Samsung found itself in an even worse position, dropping more than 7 percentage points year-over-year to finish with 25.2 percent of the market.
Apple's sales are thought to have been restrained somewhat by consumers who elected to wait for the next-generation iPhone before purchasing — a sentiment echoed by Apple chief Tim Cook on the company's most recent earnings call.
Samsung's fall is especially troubling given that the measured quarter included the release of the company's new flagship Galaxy S5. Despite the high-profile launch, Samsung shipped some 3 million fewer handsets this year than in the year-ago period.
Chinese brands were the big winners in the second quarter, helped along by the still-significant growth from the domestic market. Huawei grew shipments by some 95.1 percent, while Lenovo posted a 38.7 percent increase.
"As the death of the feature phone approaches more rapidly than before, it is the Chinese vendors that are ready to usher emerging market consumers into smartphones," IDC research manager Melissa Chau said in a release. "The offer of smartphones at a much better value than the top global players but with a stronger build quality and larger scale than local competitors gives these vendors a precarious competitive advantage."
It should be noted that IDC's methodologies have been called into question in recent months, as the firm's predictions often differ significantly from reported numbers.
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
Malcolm Owen
David Schloss
40 Comments
SAMDUNG is in huge trouble.
Their top end Galaxy S5 is selling worse than the S4.
Their flagship S5 was outsold by Apples 5C.
Their total phones are down 4%
We are nearing the point where all Android phones will be commoditized. There will be no reason to buy a copycat $700 Samdung when you can buy a copycat $200 Chinese phone that is just as good. I'd argue that some of the Xiaomi phones look better than Samdung at half the price.
I predict in 12-18 months (basically by next holiday season) the premium Android market ($600+) will be basically on life support. With nothing differentiating the high end Android phones to the Chinese stuff the market won't be willing to pay double or triple the price.
The Android phone market will basically be the WindowsPC market. The vast majority will buy the cheap crap with a very few opting for the top of the line. If they want top of the line they will go to Apple.
Will be interesting to see what happens in the next year.
Android phones / tablets might become the "new netbooks."
Faddish, but catering to only the low end of the market where there is zero brand loyalty.
The rise of the Chinese middle class is increasing the average Chinese citizen's purchasing power.
And that Chinese middle class is also extremely status-conscious.
They're contributing to the extinction of African elephants. They just love ivory.
And they'd probably prefer domestic brands or Apple over Samsung.
Will be interesting to see what happens in the next decade or two.
The pie is growing and just looking at unit sales Apple's total is growing as well. That's always a positive.
Suspect data,quality from Gartner, IDC, et al. Aside, the profit share changes year over year would be more interesting. Grabbing share at the expense of profit is "easy," but eventually the piper must be paid. The PC business is a classic example, where the profit and margin is owned by a Apple with small albeit growing share.
SAMDUNG is in huge trouble.
Their top end Galaxy S5 is selling worse than the S4.
Their flagship S5 was outsold by Apples 5C.
Their total phones are down 4%
We are nearing the point where all Android phones will be commoditized. There will be no reason to buy a copycat $700 Samdung when you can buy a copycat $200 Chinese phone that is just as good. I'd argue that some of the Xiaomi phones look better than Samdung at half the price.
I predict in 12-18 months (basically by next holiday season) the premium Android market ($600+) will be basically on life support. With nothing differentiating the high end Android phones to the Chinese stuff the market won't be willing to pay double or triple the price.
The Android phone market will basically be the WindowsPC market. The vast majority will buy the cheap crap with a very few opting for the top of the line. If they want top of the line they will go to Apple.
I agree with you. I wouldn't be too quick to crow about it though, because it won't help Apple sell phones that cost 2 times what these commoditised android hardware flagships are selling for, it will just make Apple's premium pricing even harder to swallow.
My son needs a new phone. I was looking at getting him the 1+ One which is touted as an affordable flagship killer. The 16 Gb version of this phone is $299 while the 64Gb model is $350. These prices are for top end hardware specs and decent build quality (possibly) The availability of such a bargain does not make me suddenly inclined to say 'that's a fantastic bargain , but it's too cheap, I'd rather pay nearly double that for an iPhone', quite the reverse. It makes me more inclined to view the iPhone as over priced.
The 1+ One isn't really available so I ditched that idea and have ordered an LG G2 instead.
See, [@]Tallest Skil[/@]? Samsung is winnnnnnning. Every smartphone company should be comparing themselves to Sammy in their advertising, and not the number two company, Apple. Weird, right? It's almost as if Apple was number one and everyone wanted to beat Apple. But analysts say Apple is number two...hmmmm.