Gartner is a trusted advisor which performs research for businesses. Their data-driven research helps businesses make informed decisions. Their recent report shows that global sales of smartphones declined by 2.7% in the first quarter of 2019.
The sales of smartphones in the first quarter of 2019 totaled 373 million units. Anshul Gupta, a senior research director at Gartner, said that the demand for premium smartphones remained lower than that of basic smartphones, which affected brands such as Samsung and Apple. He also said that the rate of upgrading from feature phones to smartphones has also slowed down, given that users prefer to buy 4G phones at a lower cost.
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Samsung retained first place with a market share of 19.2% despite an 8.8% decline in sales in the first quarter. Huawei maintained the second largest smartphone vendor in the world despite the persisting trade war with the US.
The Chinese company achieved the highest year-on-year growth with a growth rate of 44.5% and smartphone sales totaling 58.4 million units. In Greater China alone, Huawei had 29.5% of the market share and a growth rate of 33%. They also performed well in Europe, with smartphone sales growth by 69%.
Mr. Gupta said that nevertheless, the removal of Google apps and services on Huawei smartphones will upset Huawei’s international smartphone business. This is as a result of the apprehension of distributors in countries affiliated to the US. Many large vendors are scared of taking sides in the trade war.
Even the US and China, the two countries that sell the most smartphones, saw sales decline by 15.8% and 3.2% respectively in the first quarter of 2019. The sales of Apple iPhones was 44.6 million in the first quarter, a decline of 17.6% year-on-year.
Vivo beat Xiaomi this time to fill the number 5 space. They sold 27.4 million smartphones while Xiaomi sold 27.2 million. They achieved this feat with the introduction of the latest features like an in-display fingerprint scanner, slider camera, fast charging, etc.
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