Samsung gets its mojo back and Huawei defies the odds in Q2 2019 smartphone market reports
Strategy Analytics, Counterpoint Research, and Canalys have all released their latest global smartphone market reports, and although the three totals differ slightly, the overarching trend is the same. Shipments are down for the seventh consecutive quarter, and it remains unclear when or if the mobile industry will be able to bounce back to a healthy growth pace.
All in all, the year’s second calendar quarter saw between 331.8 and 360 million smartphones shipped worldwide, down from a Q2 2018 count that ranged from 339.7 to 364.3 million units. That marks a year-on-year decline of between 1.2 and 2.6 percent, which is obviously not ideal but actually represents an improvement from drops reported over the last year or so. Otherwise put, the global market is slowly stabilizing, and at least according to Strategy Analytics, the “outlook for the second half of this year is improving.”
No changes in the top five vendors
Meanwhile, Apple was by far the worst performer among the big five players, declining from around 12 to a little over 10 percent share, and although iPhone “sales trends” are improving, you shouldn’t expect a spectacular reversal of fortunes anytime soon. In fourth and fifth place, Xiaomi and Oppo more or less remained in the same position as last year, facing intensifying domestic competition and/or international slowdowns.
A top ten newcomer and another big drop for an industry veteran
While companies like Sony, OnePlus, or Google are nowhere to be found in Counterpoint’s top ten list for Q2 2019, Realme incredibly managed to sell 4.7 million smartphones this quarter with virtually no Western presence. The 2018-founded brand is owned by Chinese tech giant BBK, along with Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, which technically makes this wildly successful group the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer, well ahead of Huawei.