The fruity cargo cult Apple is floundering even
while the smartphone market has picked up, according to the latest
figures from the Gartner Grope.
According to the Big G, Apple has had three consecutive quarters of
slowing demand and seen its sales decline by 7.7 percent while its
rivals saw an increase of 4.3 percent.
Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 344 million units in
the second quarter of 2016. Overall sales of mobile phones contracted
by 0.5 percent with only five vendors from the top 10 showing growth.
Among them were four Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and BBK
Communication Equipment and South Korea’s Samsung.
Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner said that demand for
premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers
wait for new hardware launches in the second half of the year.
In addition, the decline in sales of “feature phones” (down 14 per
cent) bolstered the decline in overall sales of mobile phones in the
second quarter of 2016. All mature markets except Japan saw slowing
demand for smartphones leading to a decline in sales of 4.9 percent. In
contrast, all emerging regions except Latin America saw growth, which
led to smartphone sales growing by 9.9 percent.
In the second quarter of 2016, Samsung had nearly 10 percent more
market share than Apple. Samsung saw sales of its Galaxy A and Galaxy J
series smartphones compete strongly with Chinese manufacturers. Its new
smartphone portfolio also helped Samsung win back share it recently lost
in emerging markets.
Apple continued its downward trend with a decline of 7.7 percent in
the second quarter of 2016. Apple sales declined in North America (its
biggest market) as well as in Western Europe. However, it witnessed its
worst sales decline in Greater China and mature Asia/Pacific regions,
where sales declined 26 percent. Apple had its best performance in
Eurasia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe regions in the second
quarter of 2016, where iPhone sales grew more than 95 percent year on
year, Gupta said.
Among the top five smartphone vendors, Oppo exhibited the highest
growth in the second quarter of 2016 at 129 percent. This is due to
strong sales of its R9 handset in China and overseas.
“Features such as an anti-shake camera optimized for selfies, and
rapid charge technology, helped Oppo carve a niche market for itself and
boost sales in a highly competitive and commoditized smartphone
market,” Gupta said.
Android regained share over iOS to achieve an 86 percent share in the
second quarter of 2016. Android’s performance continued to come from
demand for mid- to lower-end smartphones from emerging markets, but also
from premium smartphones, which recorded a 6.5 percent increase in the
second quarter of 2016.
A number of key Android players, such as Samsung with the Galaxy S7,
introduced their new high-end devices, but Chinese brands like Huawei
and Oppo are also pushing their premium smartphone ranges with more
affordable devices.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق