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 continued increase in offerings at the key $250 level - there will have to be another set of offerings in the $150 and below range to drive consumption into the next tier.
Shifting back to Apple. As I've mentioned in other posts - to me Apple has a challenge - while it's products are of high quality - their pricing is very high and therefore limits their market. And while Apple is seeing growth in their "wearables" segment (air buds, watches, headphones) and services - it is not making up the difference as total revenue dropped 5% from Q1 2018.
Even their recent updates to the iPad line are not really moving the needle as they seem to be discounted regularly - something Apple really doesn't like to do.
Is Apple in trouble ? No not really - but as I've stated before as their top end phone prices approach $2K in the coming years - I suspect that OEMs like Xaiomi will also surpass Apple in volume. And I just can't see other product lines & services alone making up the difference from a total revenue perspective. And I don't think new offerings like TV+ are going to change that.
The global growth are in the segments I mentioned above - $250 & $150 - a place that Apple just won't go - but the Chinese will go willingly.
At current pace 2019 will see somewhere in 1.3 - 1.4B total units sold. To me there are two potential catalysts for the market - 5G & foldables. We're starting to see early models of both with the typical mixed results.
5G has the greatest potential to drive customers to refresh - but that will only be if there are apps that can really take advantage of it and if the service providers can keep pricing inline.
And while foldables are certainly interesting - early Samsung units failed miserably and the challenge will be powering multiple high def screens. So it may be a few more years before we really start to see this trend in earnest.
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 continued increase in offerings at the key $250 level - there will have to be another set of offerings in the $150 and below range to drive consumption into the next tier.
Shifting back to Apple. As I've mentioned in other posts - to me Apple has a challenge - while it's products are of high quality - their pricing is very high and therefore limits their market. And while Apple is seeing growth in their "wearables" segment (air buds, watches, headphones) and services - it is not making up the difference as total revenue dropped 5% from Q1 2018.
Even their recent updates to the iPad line are not really moving the needle as they seem to be discounted regularly - something Apple really doesn't like to do.
Is Apple in trouble ? No not really - but as I've stated before as their top end phone prices approach $2K in the coming years - I suspect that OEMs like Xaiomi will also surpass Apple in volume. And I just can't see other product lines & services alone making up the difference from a total revenue perspective. And I don't think new offerings like TV+ are going to change that.
The global growth are in the segments I mentioned above - $250 & $150 - a place that Apple just won't go - but the Chinese will go willingly.
5G has the greatest potential to drive customers to refresh - but that will only be if there are apps that can really take advantage of it and if the service providers can keep pricing inline.
And while foldables are certainly interesting - early Samsung units failed miserably and the challenge will be powering multiple high def screens. So it may be a few more years before we really start to see this trend in earnest.
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