Global smartphone shipments total 355.2 million in Q3 2018-- a -6% Y-o-Y drop, making a 4th consecutive quarter of Y-o-Y declines for the global smartphone market, bringing about questions involving the future of the market.
The analyst points out a major factors for the quarter. The first involves Samsung, largest smartphone vendor in terms of market share, accounting for 20.3% of Q3 2018 shipments even as sees a -13.4% Y-o-Y drop. Samsung shipments total 72.2m units, and the company faces challenges from all directions. Huawei is getting increasingly closer to the top as it holds on the 2nd position in the vendor rankings Meanwhile Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo prove are finding success in growing markets where Samsung held top position for many years.
"The race at the top of the market continues to be a heated one as Huawei once again slipped past Apple to the 2nd position," IDC remarks. "Although Huawei may have beat out Apple in Q3 2018, the holiday quarter could have Apple as the market leader thanks to the launch of 3 new bezel-less devices. No matter who leads in the overall market the holiday quarter should be an exciting one with a wide selection of new flagship devices available. With the new iPhones, Mate 20, Pixel 3, V40, Note 9, and OnePlus 6T, we can expect consumers will have a plethora of options when upgrade time approaches. The vast selection of high-priced handsets should move ASPs in a positive direction come next quarter."
As mentioned earlier, Huawei is 2nd in the Q3 2018 global vendor rankings, with 14.6% market share and shipments reaching 52m The company sees success through the competitive P- and Mate-series devices, as well as the Honor brand. Apple comes 3rd with shipments reaching 46.9m, a 0.5% Y-o-Y increase. October 2018 saw Apple release 3 iPhone X devices, whose shipments will be counted in the IDC Q4 2018 figures.
An aggressive Xiaomi reaches 4th place with 9.7% shipment share, in part the result of a growing presence in European markets such as Spain. The Redmi 5A, Redmi 5 Plus, and Redmi Note 5 are popular devices, and the newer Redmi 6/A/Pro should ramp up quickly as well. Closing the top 5 is Oppo, whose devices (such as the Find X and R17) are attracting some global attention through stking designs and highly marketed launch events.