iPhone marketshare dips to 14.8% amid tougher Chinese competition, Gartner says
Apple's year-over-year drop in smartphone sales during the March quarter also caused the company to lose marketshare, though part of the shift can be linked to fast-rising Chinese smartphone makers, according to new research data.
Although Apple held onto second place, it saw its marketshare slide to 14.9 percent from 17.9 percent a year ago, Gartner said in its latest industry report. iPhone unit sales were down from approximately 60.177 million to just under 51.63 million.
Samsung remained the global leader in the smartphone market, growing sales slightly to almost 81.187 million units. Its share nevertheless slipped slightly, from 24.1 to 23.2 percent.
Perhaps the biggest reason is Huawei, which leapt ahead from a 5.4 percent share to 8.3, with sales up from about 18.111 million to 28.861 million. Another Chinese smartphone maker, Oppo, saw its share more than double from 2 percent to 4.6 percent, as its sales increased from roughly 6.585 million to over 16.112 million.
Xiaomi saw sales rise from roughly 14.740 million to 15.048 million, but this wasn't enough to keep up its share, which dipped a tenth of a percentage point to 4.3 percent.
The smartphone market as a whole grew 3.9 percent to approximately 349 million. Notably, falling out of the top five vendors -- and even the top 10 -- was Lenovo, which is however leading the global laptop market.
Apple's iPhone sales aren't expected to resume high performance until this fall, when company should ship the "iPhone 7" and "7 Plus." While the standard 7 model may be a relatively conventional upgrade, rumors have hinted that the Plus will get a dual-lens camera and a Smart Connector.
Although Apple held onto second place, it saw its marketshare slide to 14.9 percent from 17.9 percent a year ago, Gartner said in its latest industry report. iPhone unit sales were down from approximately 60.177 million to just under 51.63 million.
Samsung remained the global leader in the smartphone market, growing sales slightly to almost 81.187 million units. Its share nevertheless slipped slightly, from 24.1 to 23.2 percent.
Perhaps the biggest reason is Huawei, which leapt ahead from a 5.4 percent share to 8.3, with sales up from about 18.111 million to 28.861 million. Another Chinese smartphone maker, Oppo, saw its share more than double from 2 percent to 4.6 percent, as its sales increased from roughly 6.585 million to over 16.112 million.
Xiaomi saw sales rise from roughly 14.740 million to 15.048 million, but this wasn't enough to keep up its share, which dipped a tenth of a percentage point to 4.3 percent.
The smartphone market as a whole grew 3.9 percent to approximately 349 million. Notably, falling out of the top five vendors -- and even the top 10 -- was Lenovo, which is however leading the global laptop market.
Apple's iPhone sales aren't expected to resume high performance until this fall, when company should ship the "iPhone 7" and "7 Plus." While the standard 7 model may be a relatively conventional upgrade, rumors have hinted that the Plus will get a dual-lens camera and a Smart Connector.
Comments
The fact you can just steal a company's hard work and creation and sell it right next to the original is sad.
I watched the full 2007 iPhone keynote yesterday and it changed my view even more on IP theft. I have ZERO respect for the knockoff brands and have even more respect for Apple.
the part where Steve says "we filed over 200 patents for this phone and we plan on protecting them". It's like he truly believed his work would be protected but the U.S. government didn't give a shit and it's probably worse in other countries.
Imagine the billions of dollars IP theft had caused Apple?
And why is Gartner lumping phones of all price points into one chart? Nevermind - I know the answer. It's so they can make Apple look bad with low market share while conveniently omitting the fact the ASP for the rest of the manufacturers on that list is below $200.
The narrative used to be that Samsung would suffer in the face of Chinese competition to the point they would soon be wiped out, yet they are holding their own and it's Apple who have lost ground to the Chinese upstarts. The S7 really saved Samsung's bacon.
Does that just about cover it?
...and I don't support thieves. There's also that.
Another study shows that in the top 5 countries in Europe the Android market share grew in Q1 2016 7% and that 2.6% of this growth came from iOS switchers, showing that Apple had a really bad quarter.
Perhaps you don't realize it but in the $150 - $250 price range the quality of the smartphones has increased a lot in the last 12 months. They are no longer the crappy, slow devices you could buy 2, 3 years ago. The iPhone is still better, but the gap is getting smaller and smaller. On some aspects these mid range phones are just better than iPhones: speaker quality, dual sim support, FM radio, external SD cards. It is becoming harder for Apple to justify a 3-fold price tag
Android software and hardware has also had a major influence on iOS, from multitasking to notifications, NFC/mobile payments, voice commands, device size, etc.
Don't dwell on it, use the dip to your advantage
For example, number 5 on the list is Xiaomi, they, for the most part, operate only in China, bits of South Asia and more recently India.
This is a $106 Xiaomi smartphone, the Redmi 3:
It's all metal, has an IPS display, a mid-range Qualcomm chip with 4G LTE, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, microSD, dual SIM and a 13 MP camera.
Doesn't it go that you can't patent an idea? MS vs Apple look and feel takes care of the rest.