According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew by 1 percent last year to reach 340 million units in Q2 2016. Samsung strengthened its lead, increasing its market share from 21.3% in Q2 2015 to 22.8% the same quarter this year with total worldwide sales for the quarter reaching 77.6 million handsets.
Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Smartphone growth has slowed due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets like China and uncertainty surrounding major political events such as the Brexit EU referendum result. However, there are emerging signs that the global smartphone market has reached a bottom in the first half of 2016, and the growth outlook for the second half of this year is brighter due to multiple big new product launches from Samsung, Apple and others.”
Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung shipped 77.6 million smartphones worldwide in Q2 2016, growing a healthy 8 percent annually from 71.9 million units in Q2 2015. Samsung maintained first position with 23 percent share for the quarter, up from 21 percent a year ago. With a new Galaxy Note 7 flagship model rumored to be on the way, Samsung will be able to strengthen its smartphone leadership into the second half of the year. Apple fell 15 percent annually and shipped a disappointing 40.4 million smartphones worldwide in Q2 2016. Apple’s global smartphone market share has softened from 14 percent to 12 percent in the past year. Apple continues to face iPhone fatigue among consumers and the new iPhone SE model has not been able to stem that trend.”
Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei maintained third position with 9 percent global smartphone market share in Q2 2016, broadly the same level as a year ago. Huawei’s smartphone growth rate has slowed dramatically, to just 5 percent annually in Q2 2016, compared with 52 percent annual growth in Q2 2015. Huawei is facing rising competition from OPPO, Samsung, Vivo and others, and Huawei’s recent growth spurt has slammed to a halt.”
