Given the strong demand of its A and Note Series smartphones, Samsung, with 20.6 per cent market share, has topped the global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2019. Huawei took the second spot, and Apple lagged behind at third place, according to the data released by Counterpoint Research. The global smartphone market remained almost flat during Q3 2019, reaching 380 million units in shipments, as compared to 379.8 million units a year ago. Interestingly, the Indian market – second-largest globally – reached a record shipment of 49 million units.
In terms of brands, Huawei, Realme, and Samsung registered positive growth, increasing their market share globally, the market researcher said. Huawei, which has been blacklisted by the Trump Administration, continued to defy the market decline with a 4 per cent increase in share globally. Stronger demand in India and China in September helped the global smartphone market to halt the seven-month streak of year-on-year (YoY) decline.
'The global smartphone market ended a long period of continuous YoY declines in Q3 2019 due to increased shipments in India and China, the two top-focus markets for every player in the mobile value chain. In India, smartphone OEMs started preparing early for the festive Diwali season this year with healthy channel buildups. In China, Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo (HOV) continued to see healthy channel demand ahead of National Day Golden Week holiday break in October, which led the market to grow a positive 6 per cent sequentially,’ Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.
‘This should drive up the overall smartphone demand into the positive growth territory for the second half of this year compared to last year. Huawei, though, will have to be careful of the inventory levels in the domestic market, as the market could quickly transition to the upcoming 5G wave, which could affect its market share in the coming quarters,’ he added.
The top three brands, Samsung, Huawei, and Apple, together garnered almost half of the smartphone market, with the rest of the market left for hundreds of other brands to compete.
Samsung continued its growth at 8.4 per cent YoY, capturing over one-fifth of the global smartphone market. This is due to strong Note 10 and Galaxy A series sales.
Huawei grew 28.5 per cent YoY globally. It captured a record 40 per cent market share in the Chinese smartphone market.
Apple iPhone shipments were down 4 per cent, and as a result, revenues fell 11 per cent YoY. The positive response for the latest iPhone 11 series during the tail end of the quarter is a silver lining for Apple going into the holiday season quarter.
Realme remained the fastest-growing brand for the second time. It also climbed up the ladder in global rankings since its last appearance. This was also the fourth consecutive quarter that Realme was within the top 5 brands in India.
BBK Group, which owns OPPO, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus, is close to becoming the largest smartphone manufacturer group globally, accounting for over 20 per cent of the global smartphone market and three of its brands in the top 10.
