Smartphone demand falls for the first time ever

The shipments of smartphones worldwide in the first quarter marked the smallest year-on-year growth on record, and Chinese smartphone makers Oppo Electronics Corp and Vivo Mobile Communication Technology Co Ltd pushed out previous fourth and fifth place players Lenovo Group Ltd and Xiaomi Corp, a report said.

Huawei, which shipped 27.5 million smartphones in the quarter, saw its marketshare surge by almost 60% year-over-year to 8.2%, thanks to continued domestic dominance, combined with a growing presence outside of China. However, there are signs that Huawei's growth in the high end segment is now starting to slow, as several major rivals like OPPO and Vivo are fighting back. 3 percent. Conversely, number three vendor Huawei made significant market share gains, rising from five percent market share in the first quarter 2015 to 8.5 percent in the same quarter this year. Samsung remained the world's biggest smartphone vendor, with sal es of its new flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones helping it to ship 79 million units in the quarter.

That brought its share down slightly to 23.6% from 24% a year earlier.

One company that defied the downward trend is China's Huawei, which saw shipments rise 64 percent from 17.3 million in Q1 2015 to 28.3 million in Q1 2016.

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Apple fell 16 percent annually and shipped a disappointing 51.2 million smartphones worldwide in Q1 2016.

BlackBerry's woes continue, with an estimated 53% decline in units shipped, despite a pivot to Android with the Priv. Unless sales pick up in 2016, as more Android devices are released, Juniper anticipates that BlackBerry will exit the smartphone market in the near future. Apple cited slowing iPhone sales among the factors for its first revenue drop since 2003, and Strategy Analytics believes other vendors have, or will soon, feel the pinch as the global market tightens. Maturity and saturation in larger markets like the USA and China is also having an impact on shipment figures.

Global smart watch shipments grew at a phenomenal pace in 1Q16, Strategy Analytics said. "The average is about four years". "All this being said, consumers are bound to have more choice in connecting their cellular-enabled tablets in the next 12-18 months and the carr iers that are the most prepared will reap the rewards".

Almost all smartphone brands faced varying degrees of decline with the exception of Samsung and Huawei, who have seen mild and moderate growth respectively.

Source: Smartphone demand falls for the first time ever