Gartner : Chinese vendors make huge gains in smartphone market
Well, this is not exactly a surprise. With Apple only doing minor updates to the iPhone lineup and Samsung bruised by Note 7 headache, Chinese vendors made lot of gains in 3Q 2016. Earlier, Huawei sold half as many phones as Apple sold. Now, Huawei is breathing down Apple’s neck to take #2 position. Oppo and BBK made huge gains. It is weird to add these as separate brands as Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus are part of BBK. Thanks to the rise in smartphone sales in SE Asia, the global smartphone sales once again registered positive growth.
Table 1. Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q16 (Thousands of Units)
| Vendor | 3Q16 Units |
3Q16 Market Share (%) | 3Q15
Units |
3Q15 Market Share (%) |
| Samsung | 71,733.5 | 19.2 | 83,586.7 | 23.6 |
| Apple | 43,000.7 | 11.5 | 46,062.0 | 13.0 |
| Huawei | 32,489.5 | 8.7 | 27,412.7 | 7.7 |
| Oppo | 24,936.6 | 6.7 | 11,868.6 | 3.4 |
| BBK Communication Equipment | 19,878.9 | 5.3 | 10,437.4 | 2.9 |
| Others | 181,253.3 | 48.6 | 174,812.8 | 49.4 |
| Total | 373,292.5 | 100.0 | 354,180.2 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (November 2016)
Samsung has lost 4.4 percentage points and Apple lost 1.5 percentage points. Back in 3Q15, Huawei could only sell half as many phones as Apple sold. This time around, Huawei sold 32.4 million units while Apple sold 43 million units. It is clear that Huawei is going to overtake Apple before Apple brings out next generation iPhone models in 2017 September-October. Thanks to super hit models like Nexus 6P, P9, Mate series, Huawei has turned into a serious and strong global smartphone maker. Oppo too made huge gains, increasing market share by 3.3 percentage points. BBK held fifth spot, increasing market share by 2.4 percentage points.
“China led the growth in the smartphone market in the third quarter of 2016,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “Sales of smartphones in China grew by 12.4 percent, and the vendors who most successfully exploited the sales opportunities there were Oppo and BBK Communication Equipment. In Oppo’s case, 81 percent of its smartphone sales came from China, while BBK accounted for 89 percent of smartphones sales in China. These two vendors also grew strongly in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Russia,” he added.”
The decision to withdraw the Galaxy Note 7 was correct, but the damage to Samsung’s brand will make it harder for the company to increase its smartphone sales in the short term,” said Mr. Gupta. “For Samsung, it’s crucial that the Galaxy S8 launches successfully, so that partners and customers regain trust in its brand.
Coming to OS wars, Android is now at 87.8% while iOS declined to 11.5%. Google clearly did to Apple in smartphone market what Microsoft did to Apple in desktop market. We should soon see iOS reduced to single digit market share, similar to that of MacOS/OSX.
Table 2. Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q16 (Thousands of Units)
| Operating System | 3Q16
Units |
3Q16 Market Share (%) | 3Q15
Units |
3Q15 Market Share (%) |
| Android | 327,674.0 | 87.8 | 300,133.2 | 84.7 |
| iOS | 43,000.7 | 11.5 | 46,062.0 | 13.0 |
| Windows | 1,484.4 | 0.4 | 5,874.4 | 1.7 |
| BlackBerry | 377.8 | 0.1 | 977.0 | 0.3 |
| Others | 755.5 | 0.2 | 1,133.6 | 0.3 |
| Total | 373,292.5 | 100.0 | 354,180.2 | 100.0 |
Source: Gartner (November 2016)
“The withdrawal of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 may benefit sales of Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus only slightly, as Note 7 users are likely to stay with Samsung or at least with Android,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. “To some extent, other Android vendors could capitalize on this situation in the short term — for example, Huawei and other Chinese brands present in the premium Android phone segment. The Note 7’s withdrawal also comes at a good time for Google in mature markets, where it’s Pixel and Pixel XL devices have started selling.”
