The global smartphone wars are taking on an interesting new look, as Chinese upstarts like Huawei, Alcatel, ZTE and Xiaomi continue to chalk up sales around the world, and even begin appearing consistently on top sales lists in countries in Europe and Asia.
Although its overall market share was slightly down, Samsung extended its lead over Apple, which had its first double-digit decline year-on-year, with iPhone sales down 14 percent.
Lenovo saw Q1 sales declining 33 percent, and is no longer among the top five smartphone vendor ranking and has also got edged out of the top 10 mobile phone vendor in Q1, 2016.
Nokia faces a challenging task as it plans to reintroduce its presence in the smartphone and mobile device market, Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, says. "In the first quarter of 2016, there were three Chinese brands - Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi - and they achieved 17 per cent of the market".
Oppo had the best performance in the quarter, moving into the No. 4 position with unit sales growth of 145%.
Driven by demand for low-priced smartphones in emerging markets and for affordable 4G phones, the worldwide market for smartphones totaled 349 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a almost 4% increase over the same period in 2015, according to a new report from Gartner.
The overall growth in smartphone sales was put down to a demand for low-priced handsets in emerging markets and more affordable 4G promotion plans globally.
The number of smartphones sold in the first three months of the year grew by 3.9 per cent to nearly 350 million, according to figures from Gartner.
Net income came to 5.25 trillion won (US$4.56 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 4.62 trillion won from a year earlier. Meanwhile Apple experienced its first double digit decline year over year, with iPhone sales down 14%.
A pedestrian walks past a billboard displayed at Samsung Electronics Co.'s headquarters building in downtown Seoul on March 7, 2016.
Huawei and Xiaomi took third and fifth place respectively as their moves into Western markets began to pay dividends, backed up by strong domestic sales. Apple is exploring ways to resell second-hand iPhones coming through the program in emerging markets.
Furthermore, that the smartphone market is slowing down makes it hard for mobile phone vendors to reach previous levels of growth. "Its smartphone sales fell by 75 percent in Greater China, where it faced strong competition from local brands".
It's a trend that's surfacing more broadly, according to analysts with Gartner, Strategy Analytics and Kantar Worldpanel, and the patterns are continuing as the companies are bringing out products that compete evenly with flagship models from global market leaders Samsung and Apple. Gartner said Android makers are still finding "challenges of profitability", which means they aren't necessarily making a lot of money, despite creating a larger footprint in the global smartphone landscape.
Source: Global smartphone grew 3.9% in Q1 2016: Gartner
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