Smartphone Market Share Q1 2019 - Huawei takes over #2 spot again.
IDC published their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile phone tracker data yesterday and we've seen a change that I predicted last year. Samsung still holds the #1 spot shipping 71.9M units an 8.1% drop from 2018. Huawei took over the #2 spot in Worldwide shipments with 59.1M units shipped a 50.3% increase over 2018. Which is actually quite amazing considering the restrictions in the US market and the recent bad press with 5G. Apple dropped to 3rd with 36.4M units shipped a drop of over 30% from 52.2M units in Q1 of 2018. The 4 & 5 spots include the other Chinese OEMs with Xaiomi in #4 and Oppo/Vivo effectively tied at #5. Total shipments for Q1 were 310.8M units a drop of 6.6% from 332.7 in 2018 - which is the 6th consecutive quarter of volume drops. This to me indicates a plateau that has been reached in the smartphone market. IDC indicates that many buyers are holding on to their phones longer - so not doing the typical 2 - 3 year refresh. And while there is a contin