Not surprised on the Gartner report, according to the global survey firm which keeps track on mobile phone sales across the continents, while Chinese vendors saw an increase in sales for the quarter ending September, the others were either stagnant or decline. Among the top 5 global brands, Oppo, Huawei and BKK Communication Equipment — together accounted for 21 percent of the smartphones sold to end users worldwide beind the only ones who saw an increase.
Oppo grew the most accounting for 81% of its sales confined in mainland, with growth spurts in India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, attributed to the success of new launches like the F1 and F1s. Global sales of smartphones on the other hand totaled 373 million units in the third quarter of 2016, a 5.4 percent increase over the third quarter of 2015. However, overall sales of mobile phones, fell by 1.3 percent, largely due to the declining popularity of feature phones.
Samsung had a good start to the quarter, but the battery problem that caused some Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire led to lower sales of the company’s high-end and high-profile line of Note products. Samsung’s smartphone sales as a whole declined 14.2 percent year over year — their worst performance ever. Samsung’s previous worst performance for smartphone sales was a 12.3 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2014. Apple was also on the same boat with declining sales with a 6.6% decline. Apple accounted for 11.5% of the global smartphone market, its lowest share since the first quarter of 2009. Apple’s sales fell by 8.5 percent in the U.S. and by 31 percent in China, two of its biggest markets. The iPhone 7 struggled to stimulate replacement sales.
Despite overall soft demand for smartphones, Huawei is seeing a rise in its popularity with its innovative approach with the P9 and Leica collaboration, the company is closing the gap on Apple, with just 3% different between them in terms of sales volume. The impact of the withdrawal of Note 7 could see Apple come back and benefit iPhone 7 sales, we will need to wait and see how the results pan out in January 2017.
