iPhone's global marketshare falls to 15.3% in March quarter amid tough Chinese competition

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2016
During the March quarter Apple's iPhone remained firmly in second place in global smartphone marketshare, but saw a significant drop year-over-year to 15.3 percent, ceding some ground to up-and-coming Chinese vendors.




Apple slipped from 18.3 percent in the March 2015 quarter, IDC said in a research report published on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Apple reported iPhone shipments dropping by nearly 10 million units, marking the first ever year-over-year decline in that segment.

Leading the pack in the global market was Samsung, which dipped from 82.4 million units to 81.9 million, lowering its marketshare just a tenth of a point to 24.5 percent.

China's Huawei, however, jumped from a 5.2 percent marketshare to 8.2 percent, shipping 27.5 million phones. Similar gains were seen at two of the company's local rivals, Oppo and Vivo, with the former growing from a 2.2 percent share to 5.5 percent. Vivo advanced from 1.9 percent to 4.3 percent, despite having little presence outside of China.




IDC speculated that Apple's shipments may have been impacted by iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners having little interest in 6s models. While the 6s has improvements like a faster processor, a better camera, and 3D Touch, these are incremental upgrades, which may be prompting people to wait for an "iPhone 7" expected to ship later this year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    Apples to Oranges yet again. Take out the low end junk from Samsung and their numbers fall to 20 million (or less).
    icoco3magman1979patchythepirate
  • Reply 2 of 33
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Look at the penetration of garbage phones: Huawei and Oppo, pure Chinese copycats. These phones probably make close to zero profits.
    magman1979nolamacguy
  • Reply 3 of 33
    jason98jason98 Posts: 768member
    sog35 said:
    Apple still dominates premium phones - AKA - the only phones that make profit.


    Here is your quote from the recent topic that seems to contradict to what you just said.
    sog35 said:

    Services up 20% YoY.

    that is the key.

    iPhone unit sales don't mean crap long term.

    GROW the USER base.
    Then sell SERVICES.
    That is the future.

    Only those with VISION know this.

    So what's more important? Selling LESS devices for GREATER profit (what Apple has been doing)?
    Or selling MORE devices with LITTLE profit and make more money from the services (what Google has been doing)?
    At the end more devices means more service exposure, right?
    edited April 2016 gatorguydomino67
  • Reply 4 of 33
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,520member
    The S versions usually have a tougher sell due to the lack of external redesign.

    Although I think that part of the issue this year was that the biggest selling feature was 3D Touch which as of yet has proven a bit of a lame duck.

    It's a fantastic phone, I own one. But I can see how strong releases from competitors have been able to put a dent in their lead this year.
  • Reply 5 of 33
    hjmnlhjmnl Posts: 31member
    I'm a longtime apple user and fan but it's justified. You can't sell at premium prices when the competition is ahead of you. See the Galaxy s7, I hate how they copy apple and I don't like Samsung logo, but it's ahead of iPhone, period. Sometimes I wonder what apple is doing because competition is on par or ahead of them (Apple TV (no Dutch Siri or voice active here), Mac Pro (they will lose video market too if they don't have a compelling update soon, but I know video editors who've already given up on Apple)). I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price. Forgive my bad English but when you don't stay ahead of the competition it's not justified to ask premium prices. That's how the market works and you'll see in product market share. And no, I'm not a troll. Just a disappointment Apple user. I hope Apple will do better. It's like a dejavu for me. I was disappointed in the late nineties too when Steve said PowerPC was the future and my friends with Intel pcs were much faster with their wintel in Photoshop than my 3x expensive G4 power Mac.
    Come on Apple, your products are not that diverse as Samsung or other brands. Concentrate and make the best again. Listen to your loyal user base and bring more ports to your MacBooks. Aesthetics are important but so does workability. How ugly is a MacBook with adaptors.
    I hope WWDC will bring some innovation again and the iPhone 7 mind blowing. Cheers.
    elijahg6Sgoldfish
  • Reply 6 of 33
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member
    sog35 said:
    Apple still dominates premium phones - AKA - the only phones that make profit.

    Apple could easily buy a cheap POS china phone company and sell 100 million phones a quarter.
    Hey...they could put your iOS Lite on it!!!! /s
  • Reply 7 of 33
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    hjmnl said:
    I'm a longtime apple user and fan but it's justified. You can't sell at premium prices when the competition is ahead of you. See the Galaxy s7, I hate how they copy apple and I don't like Samsung logo, but it's ahead of iPhone, period. Sometimes I wonder what apple is doing because competition is on par or ahead of them (Apple TV (no Dutch Siri or voice active here), Mac Pro (they will lose video market too if they don't have a compelling update soon, but I know video editors who've already given up on Apple)). I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price. Forgive my bad English but when you don't stay ahead of the competition it's not justified to ask premium prices. That's how the market works and you'll see in product market share. And no, I'm not a troll. Just a disappointment Apple user. I hope Apple will do better. It's like a dejavu for me. I was disappointed in the late nineties too when Steve said PowerPC was the future and my friends with Intel pcs were much faster with their wintel in Photoshop than my 3x expensive G4 power Mac.
    Come on Apple, your products are not that diverse as Samsung or other brands. Concentrate and make the best again. Listen to your loyal user base and bring more ports to your MacBooks. Aesthetics are important but so does workability. How ugly is a MacBook with adaptors.
    I hope WWDC will bring some innovation again and the iPhone 7 mind blowing. Cheers.
    Apple is years ahead of the competition and worth every penny. This is why everyone who can afford an Apple device owns one.

    Stick to your spyware knockoffs if it makes you happy.
    magman1979nolamacguyericthehalfbeepatchythepiratelostkiwi
  • Reply 8 of 33
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    The fact Apple released its actual god damn phone in China in Q2 last year, Samsung took a deep fall and pent up demand for large Iphones last year (plus Apple doing a big China push last year) is why Apple rose in Q2 last year while they actually lose market share usually.

    I'm kind of fracking tired of dumbass headlines; it's like headlines for low info readers.

    Yes, Apple has lots of competition and needs to respond to it but 90% this narrative is bunk.
    The media now invents much more "news" than they report.
    nolamacguycalilostkiwi
  • Reply 9 of 33
    MnMarkMnMark Posts: 22member
    hjmnl said:
    I'm a longtime apple user and fan but it's justified. You can't sell at premium prices when the competition is ahead of you. See the Galaxy s7, I hate how they copy apple and I don't like Samsung logo, but it's ahead of iPhone, period. Sometimes I wonder what apple is doing because competition is on par or ahead of them (Apple TV (no Dutch Siri or voice active here), Mac Pro (they will lose video market too if they don't have a compelling update soon, but I know video editors who've already given up on Apple)). I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price. Forgive my bad English but when you don't stay ahead of the competition it's not justified to ask premium prices. That's how the market works and you'll see in product market share. And no, I'm not a troll. Just a disappointment Apple user. I hope Apple will do better. It's like a dejavu for me. I was disappointed in the late nineties too when Steve said PowerPC was the future and my friends with Intel pcs were much faster with their wintel in Photoshop than my 3x expensive G4 power Mac.
    Come on Apple, your products are not that diverse as Samsung or other brands. Concentrate and make the best again. Listen to your loyal user base and bring more ports to your MacBooks. Aesthetics are important but so does workability. How ugly is a MacBook with adaptors.
    I hope WWDC will bring some innovation again and the iPhone 7 mind blowing. Cheers.
    Your opinion that it's 'ahead' is really, really subjective. I have used an Android phone day in and day out for a bit. It's not horrible, but it is in no way easier and it does not act as a 'whole'. That's fine, I'm not saying 'it sucks'. What I am saying is that Apple still have a superior integration between hardware and software. Will everyone care? That's doesn't really matter. Not everyone like Fords. Not everyone like Lexus. People will buy what people will buy. And people don't need to nor will they in the future, buy a phone every year anymore than they buy a car every year. When that happens the Korean company will suffer a far greater problem. But saying that Apple is 'behind' is a very silly argument.
    nolamacguycalibadmonk
  • Reply 10 of 33
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    hjmnl said:
    I'm a longtime apple user and fan but it's justified. You can't sell at premium prices when the competition is ahead of you. See the Galaxy s7, I hate how they copy apple and I don't like Samsung logo, but it's ahead of iPhone, period. Sometimes I wonder what apple is doing because competition is on par or ahead of them (Apple TV (no Dutch Siri or voice active here), Mac Pro (they will lose video market too if they don't have a compelling update soon, but I know video editors who've already given up on Apple)). I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price. Forgive my bad English but when you don't stay ahead of the competition it's not justified to ask premium prices. That's how the market works and you'll see in product market share. And no, I'm not a troll. Just a disappointment Apple user. I hope Apple will do better. It's like a dejavu for me. I was disappointed in the late nineties too when Steve said PowerPC was the future and my friends with Intel pcs were much faster with their wintel in Photoshop than my 3x expensive G4 power Mac.
    Come on Apple, your products are not that diverse as Samsung or other brands. Concentrate and make the best again. Listen to your loyal user base and bring more ports to your MacBooks. Aesthetics are important but so does workability. How ugly is a MacBook with adaptors.
    I hope WWDC will bring some innovation again and the iPhone 7 mind blowing. Cheers.
    I'm willing to bet you don't even have the MacBook ultraportable, so I'm not sure why it having adapters for added ports is an issue to you.
  • Reply 11 of 33
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member
    fallenjt said:
    Look at the penetration of garbage phones: Huawei and Oppo, pure Chinese copycats. These phones probably make close to zero profits.
    Doesn't matter.
    Point is; these People all have 'those' phones in their pockets now. Not an iPhone.
    calicnocbuidasanman696Sgoldfishhjmnl
  • Reply 12 of 33
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member

    sog35 said:

    saarek said:
    The S versions usually have a tougher sell due to the lack of external redesign.

    Although I think that part of the issue this year was that the biggest selling feature was 3D Touch which as of yet has proven a bit of a lame duck.

    It's a fantastic phone, I own one. But I can see how strong releases from competitors have been able to put a dent in their lead this year.
    Nope.  Samsung/HTC/Sony/LG has not made a single dent to iPhone sales.  iPhone sales are down for the simple reason that iPhone 6 was a super cycle of pent up demand.

    Notice that Samsung/HTC/Sony/LG have not released unit sales?  Its because they are worse then last year. They are not stealing any sales from Apple.
    Well, except for the sales Apple didn't get when these people bought their Samsung/HTC/Sony/LG phone.
    calicnocbuidasanman696Sgoldfishhjmnl
  • Reply 13 of 33
    boeyc15boeyc15 Posts: 986member
    hjmnl said:
     
    I'm willing to bet you don't even have the MacBook ultraportable, so I'm not sure why it having adapters for added ports is an issue to you.

    Huh? - One must own the device to know they don't want it or it wont work for their needs?

    I agree, IF I needed many accessory's ---this one port to rule them all / Apple dongle is a fiasco. However, Apple knows(or thinks it knows) 80% of the users don't care its one port(although I think they are wrong on this number, like when the Air added ports too).


    6Sgoldfish
  • Reply 14 of 33
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    This year Apple introduced a mid-cycle iPhone. There's no reason to worry and the SE is a hit so far.
  • Reply 15 of 33
    focherfocher Posts: 687member
    hjmnl said:
    I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price.
    Funny, but my iMac 5k has an i7, no hard drive (SSD), and does not use soldered RAM (in fact, I bought the 32GB modules off Amazon and popped them in the same day I got the iMac). You seem to be seriously lacking in facts, so it's pretty easy to dismiss your opinions.

    I also have a 2015 MacBook and have absolutely not been impacted with the single USB-C port. I love that laptop. Is it the right laptop for everyone? Nope. But I bet 90% of the laptop using public would do great with it.
  • Reply 16 of 33
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    Unfortunately I see a similar trend with the iPhone now as Apple had in the mid 90's with the Mac. They blindly priced themselves out of the market, and market share fell so far developers jumped ship. I really don't want that to happen with iOS, as it's miles superior to Android in any incarnation.
    focher said:
    Funny, but my iMac 5k has an i7, no hard drive (SSD), and does not use soldered RAM (in fact, I bought the 32GB modules off Amazon and popped them in the same day I got the iMac). You seem to be seriously lacking in facts, so it's pretty easy to dismiss your opinions.
    I also have a 2015 MacBook and have absolutely not been impacted with the single USB-C port. I love that laptop. Is it the right laptop for everyone? Nope. But I bet 90% of the laptop using public would do great with it.

    Don't be obtuse, you know exactly what he's talking about. All the iMacs still have hard disks as standard. It's completely mad that "premium" machines with a price of £1,850 still have a HDD, with an SSD still an added extra. It's like buying a top of the range BMW and it coming with cheap £40 steel wheels. The 24" iMacs have soldered RAM too, which is unnecessary; due to Ive's OCD over thickness. 

    People are willing to pay extra for a premium product, but when they feel ripped off they won't hesitate to go elsewhere, especially with Windows becoming (marginally) better. I think Macs are great, but their value is certainly nowhere near what it used to be, especially since the switch to x86 means direct comparisons price and spec wise are possible. I guess also Apple doesn't have much faith in their products seeing how they still only offer a one year warranty as standard.


    edited April 2016 6Sgoldfish
  • Reply 17 of 33
    vivo and OPPO are both owned by BBK, along with OnePlus (which probably in my guess has about 0.5 - 1% share). The combined 9.8 of vivo and OPPO, plus the share of OnePlus easily pushes BBK past Huawei as the number 3 vendor. Fascinating for a company most people have never heard of (outside of their known but minor OnePlus brand).
  • Reply 18 of 33
    focher said:
    hjmnl said:
    I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price.
    Funny, but my iMac 5k has an i7, no hard drive (SSD), and does not use soldered RAM (in fact, I bought the 32GB modules off Amazon and popped them in the same day I got the iMac). You seem to be seriously lacking in facts, so it's pretty easy to dismiss your opinions.

    I also have a 2015 MacBook and have absolutely not been impacted with the single USB-C port. I love that laptop. Is it the right laptop for everyone? Nope. But I bet 90% of the laptop using public would do great with it.
    Wow looks like your single-person target group is unanimously positive, focher. Try popping your 32GB modules into a 21,5" iMac and see what happens.

    (Not) sorry (at all) to burst your bubble, but our dutch friend is spot on. The iMac is a cool screen with parity laptop components, and the Macbook is a glamorous facebook machine that stretches the physical boundaries of device thinness. Both underpowered and un-upgradeable. Macs were beasts until just recently. They were mostly used for graphics and video editing for a reason. Nowadays, however, Apple seems to be falling into the trap that design is only about aesthetics -and rose gold. 

    And yes, sog35, hjmnl is obviously a (disgruntled) Apple fan and so am I. Dissenting views must be causing serious beachballs inside your one track mind. 
    edited April 2016 cnocbuielijahg
  • Reply 19 of 33
    croprcropr Posts: 1,120member
    cali said:
    hjmnl said:
    I'm a longtime apple user and fan but it's justified. You can't sell at premium prices when the competition is ahead of you. See the Galaxy s7, I hate how they copy apple and I don't like Samsung logo, but it's ahead of iPhone, period. Sometimes I wonder what apple is doing because competition is on par or ahead of them (Apple TV (no Dutch Siri or voice active here), Mac Pro (they will lose video market too if they don't have a compelling update soon, but I know video editors who've already given up on Apple)). I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an apple and was waiting for Apple to introduce an iMac with the latest i7 and screen update. I got disappointed and angry when they did. Soldered ram, a hard drive from the nineties and above premium price. Forgive my bad English but when you don't stay ahead of the competition it's not justified to ask premium prices. That's how the market works and you'll see in product market share. And no, I'm not a troll. Just a disappointment Apple user. I hope Apple will do better. It's like a dejavu for me. I was disappointed in the late nineties too when Steve said PowerPC was the future and my friends with Intel pcs were much faster with their wintel in Photoshop than my 3x expensive G4 power Mac.
    Come on Apple, your products are not that diverse as Samsung or other brands. Concentrate and make the best again. Listen to your loyal user base and bring more ports to your MacBooks. Aesthetics are important but so does workability. How ugly is a MacBook with adaptors.
    I hope WWDC will bring some innovation again and the iPhone 7 mind blowing. Cheers.
    Apple is years ahead of the competition and worth every penny. This is why everyone who can afford an Apple device owns one.

    Stick to your spyware knockoffs if it makes you happy.
    I am a long time Apple user, having an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac mini and a MacbookPro.   The other day I bought a Ubuntu based Dell XPS13 with a i7 Skylake CPU and 16GB ram, because Apple does not manage  to produce a high end competing Mac.  Apple is definitely running behind for its high end laptops. Keep in mind that the first Skylake based laptops were already in 2015 on the market .
    Luckily Apple is not running behind for its iOS based devices, but the competition is sitting on Apple's heels.  Let's hope that the iPhone7 will be really good

    6Sgoldfish
  • Reply 20 of 33
    bobschlob said:
    fallenjt said:
    Look at the penetration of garbage phones: Huawei and Oppo, pure Chinese copycats. These phones probably make close to zero profits.
    Doesn't matter.
    Point is; these People all have 'those' phones in their pockets now. Not an iPhone.
    Of course, you would define anything other than an iPhone to be a garbage phone regardless of its hardware, build quality or operation. Permit me to offer an alternate viewpoint. The average selling price of an Android phone in 2015: $180. That happens to be the price of the Moto G, bought directly from the manufacturer with no contract. Do you believe the Moto G to be a garbage phone? If so, your opinion would be in the minority: see here and here and here and here for examples.

    The smartphone is no different from every other piece of technology. is subject to the same laws as every other piece of new technology. When they are first introduced, the price is high and the number of companies capable of offering quality products are few because the expertise required to design and manufacture them is scarce and in many instances the necessary components are sparse. Over time - and the iPhone has been around for 9 years - the know how becomes much more common and the parts even more so, to the point where teenagers are now building smartphones using Raspberry Pi kits. That's why where an Apple computer once cost $3000 in today's money, a Mac Mini can be had for $500 and a MacBook Air for not much more. The iPod Shuffle went from $150 to $50 in less time than the iPhone has been on the market. The DVD player that used to cost over $500 now costs $30. And HDTVs have astoundingly dropped from $8000 to as little as $200 in less than 15 years.

    Incidentally, one reason why more companies than Apple are now capable of making quality smartphones: the competition has been poaching Apple talent (current and former) for years. Mostly mid-level guys, sure, but every now and then an upper level person too. Huawei's devices got better right after they hired Abigail Baker, for example. But it hasn't all been in one direction. Perhaps the best recognition that the competition is also making good products is Apple has been hiring their talent also and has been for years: here and here and here.

    As for making zero profits: it is curious. The only smartphone manufacturer to leave the business or go bankrupt in all this time (not counting Motorola who had been in trouble long before the iPhone) was Nokia, the only one not to adopt Android! The only two companies that have consistently lost money the past several years are HTC and Sony. Sony's problem is longtime mismanagement, which afflicts more than merely their mobile division, HTC's is simply being too small to compete in advertising, R&D and supply chain. The rest either do in fact make "small" profits of several hundred million to a billion a year, or are willing to break even or actually take a small loss because they use their smartphones to push other products and services. LG for instance states that their smartphones helps them sell HDTVs and audio hardware. Xiaomi and Huawei bundle their smartphones with broadband, mobile and streaming services. That's why not only are there no Android device makers going broke or exiting the market - though Dell it seems is slowly dropping Android to go all in on Windows 10 for their tablets and hybrids - but rather more new companies enter the market with devices each year.

    So you can believe what you choose, but only because you very badly, desperately want to believe that the iPhone is the one product in the world that only a single company can make well and earn a profit doing so.

    6Sgoldfishasj2007elijahgdomino67singularity
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