Global smartphone sales are down by -1.7% Y-o-Y to reach 368 million units in Q2 2019, Gartner reports, with the slowdown of demand for high-end models forcing vendors to bring premium features to low-priced devices.
“Demand for high-end smartphones has slowed at a greater rate than demand for midrange and low-end smartphones,” the analyst says. “To try to boost smartphone replacements, we’ve seen manufacturers bringing premium features such as multilens front/back cameras, bezel-less displays and large batteries from their flagship smartphones into lower-priced models."
The two vendors seeing the strongest growth during the quarter are Huawei and Samsung, with respective Q2 2019 increases at 16.8% and 3.8% Y-o-Y. As a result the two companies account for over 30% of global sales, even if the recent ban has led to a "sharp" decline in Huawei sales. Sales did improve slightly on deferment of the ban, while strong promotion and brand positioning helped bring about record sales in the company's home China.
In the meantime Samsung sees a return to growth on Q2 2019 sales reaching 75m units, as well as an increase in share of 1.1 percentage points. Helping bring about such performance is strong demand for the Galaxy A series and a revamp of the entry-level and midrange smartphone range. Demand for the flagship Galaxy S10 was weak during the quarter though, an indication of challenging times for full-year 2019.
iPhone sales continue to fall in Q2 2019, if at a lesser rate compared to Q1 2019. Sales for Q2 2019 clock at 38 million units, a -13.8% Y-o-Y decline, with "too few" incremental upgrades failing to persuade existing iPhone owners to acquire a replacement. Gartner says Apple has reached an inflection point, as marked by a shift in business towards services, a segment making 21% of Q1 201 revenues for the company.
As for the rest of the year, the analyst predicts sales will remain weak, reaching a total of 1.5 billion units.
Go Gartner Market Share: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, All Countries, Q2 2019 Update
