Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 355.2 million units during the third quarter of 2018 (3Q18), resulting in a year-over-year decline of 6.0%, according to preliminary data from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
IDC said the figures raise questions about the market's future given that this was the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines for the global smartphone market.
Samsung, the largest smartphone vendor in terms of market share, accounting for 20.3% of shipments in 3Q18, declined 13.4% year over year in the quarter. IDC says Samsung is under pressure from all directions, especially with Huawei inching closer to the top after its second consecutive quarter as the number two vendor. In addition, are being changed by the rapid growth of Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo are also penetrating growing markets like India and Indonesia, where Samsung has held leading positions for many years.
China, which is the largest country market for smartphone consumption, accounting for roughly one third of global shipments, was down as well for the sixth consecutive quarter, and was down 11% in the first half of 2018 (1H18),.
"China's domestic market continues to be challenged as overall consumer spending around smartphones has been down," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "High penetration levels, mixed with some challenging economic times, has slowed the world's largest smartphone market. Despite this, we believe this market will begin to recover in 2019 and beyond, driven in the short term by a large, built up refresh cycle across all segments, and in the outer years of the forecast supported by 5G migration."
- Huawei landed in the number two position for the second straight quarter by shipping 52.0 million handsets and grabbing 14.6% of the overall market.
- Apple's newest iPhones helped push third quarter shipments to 46.9 million units, up 0.5% from the 46.7 million units last year.
- Xiaomi once again grew its share to a new company high capturing 9.7% of all smartphones shipped worldwide in 3Q18.
- OPPO like Samsung saw shipments decline year over year, although it remained the number 5 vendor in terms of market share with 29.9 million shipments in 3Q18, down 2.1% from a year ago.
