Thursday, August 20, 2015

Peak Smartphone: "Smartphone Sales Declined for the First Time in China"

From Gartner:

Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Recorded Slowest Growth Rate Since 2013
Android's Year-Over-Year Growth Rate at its Lowest
Gartner, Inc. said worldwide smartphone sales recorded the slowest growth rate since 2013 in the second quarter of 2015. Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users totaled 330 million units, an increase of 13.5 percent over the same period in 2014 (see Table 1). 

"While demand for lower-cost 3G and 4G smartphones continued to drive growth in emerging markets, overall smartphone sales remained mixed region by region in the second quarter of 2015," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. Emerging Asia/Pacific (excluding China), Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa were the fastest-growing regions, driven by good performance from Chinese and local vendors. By contrast, smartphone sales in China fell for the first time year over year, recording a 4 percent decline. 

"China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 percent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015. Its poor performance negatively affected the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter," said Mr. Gupta. "China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers. Beyond the lower-end phone segment, the appeal of premium smartphones will be key for vendors to attract upgrades and to maintain or grow their market share in China."

Despite the launch of new S6 models, Samsung's premium phones continued to be challenged by Apple's large-screen iPhones. Samsung lost 4.3 percentage points in market share and declined 5.3 percent in unit sales in the second quarter of 2015. Huawei recorded the highest sales growth rate of 46.3 percent, thanks to strong overseas sales and 4G smartphone sales in China. iPhone sales increased 36 percent, which helped Apple gain 2.4 percentage points in market share. Apple recorded strong iPhone replacements in both emerging and mature markets — and particularly in China. Total iPhone sales in China grew 68 percent to 11.9 million units. 

Table 1
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q15 (Thousands of Units)
Company
2Q15
Units
2Q15 Market Share (%)
2Q14
Units
2Q14 Market Share (%)
Samsung
72,072.5
21.9
76,129.2
26.2
Apple
48,085.5
14.6
35,345.3
12.2
Huawei
25,825.8
7.8
17,657.7
6.1
Lenovo*
16,405.9
5.0
19,081.2
6.6
Xiaomi
16,064.9
4.9
12,540.8
4.3
Others
151,221.7
45.9
129,630.2
44.6
Total
329,676.4
100.0
290,384.4
100.0
Source: Gartner (August 2015)

*The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola both in 2Q15 and 2Q14.

Apple's double-digit growth in the high-end segment continued to negatively impact its rivals' premium phone sales and profit margins. Many vendors had to realign their portfolios to remain competitive in the midrange and low-end smartphone segments. This realignment resulted in price wars and discounting to clear up inventory for new devices planned for the second half of 2015....MORE
HT: The Mercury News' SiliconBeat blog

Possibly also of interest: 
June 2015 
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