The biggest victor, however, was Xiaomi, whose sales increased by more than 37% in the Q1 of 2018.
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The Chinese smartphone brands, with mere budget phones, are taking their fight to premium high-end brands including Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony.
New data from International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests consumers are buying fewer phones, but several companies still saw substantial increases in shipments last quarter.
The report, which comes through the latest research from Strategy Analytics, shows that while global smartphone shipments fell 2 percent annually from 353.8 million units in the first quarter of 2017 to 345.4 million in the first quarter of 2018, Xiaomi reached the fourth spot – surpassing Oppo that slipped to the fifth place.
Apple which surprised the analysts with a strong fiscal 2018 second quarter results, shipped 52.2 million devices, reporting 14.5 per cent market share at second spot. This is due primarily to Xiaomi’s growth outside of the Chinese market, with its push for market expansion in India and Southeast Asia. Web developers have even had to prioritize on mobile friendliness because most people access the internet through their smartphones.
Apple has for a long time been holding the crown for the best smartphone with the iPhone although it has been facing a lot of competition lately especially from Samsung and Xiaomi among others. Shipments have declined compared with a year ago and the numbers are some of the lowest since 2013.
Xiaomi also remained one of the fastest growing brands (+101%) in Q1 2018, driven by strong sales in both China (+51%) and India (+134%). In total, Winter estimates, Apple has now sold 50 million units in the two quarters of availability. But shipments of iPhone X, its new flagship model, declined severely.
Xiaomi: As mentioned in this article published earlier today, Xiaomi’s numbers are downright incredible. Especially with shipments in markets like India still continuing to grow and developing countries still just beginning to get engulfed in the smartphone revolution.
iTel entered the top 10 smartphone market for the first time. Outside of China, Huawei is gaining market share across the Western Europe region.
The most depressing news of the first quarter this year, however, revolves around ZTE.
Kantar Kantar Worldpanel ComTech’s latest smartphone OS shares have ben revealed, showing that in the three months ending March 2018, “competition within Android continued to intensify as Huawei and Xiaomi expanded their global presence”.
The main slowdown in the worldwide smartphone market is in China, with an overall decline of 3% in shipments.
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You can read the full report on smartphone shipments here.
