According to Gartner, sales of smartphone devices across the globe have bounced back (from an uninspiring Q4 2017) during the first three months of this year, registering some growth by posting a 1.3 percent improvement as compared to the sales recorded during the first quarter of 2017. Based on the market research firm’s estimations, close to 384 million units of smartphones were purchased by mobile users during the January, February, and March months early this year. This volume is equal to 84 percent of the entire sales of mobile phones.
As pointed out by Anshul Gupta, the director of research at Gartner, however, the demand for premium and high end handsets appears to continue to take a hit, mainly because of marginal incremental benefits from one generation of smartphone to the next. As for entry level devices (those priced under a hundred bucks) and low midtier smartphones (with pricing that is not more than $150), demand for them has gone up because of improvements in quality in subsequent models.
In its latest report, Gartner also made sure to mention that China, considered by many as the biggest market for mobile devices in the face of the planet, has continued to register slow figures in terms of sales. This has in turn affected the rate of growth of the world’s leading smartphone brands, which include homegrown phone makers such as Vivo and Oppo (more than 70 percent of these brands’ sales can be attributed to Chinese buyers).
Per Gartner’s numbers, the top five smartphone sellers in the world during the first quarter of 2018 are:
Industry leader Samsung actually sold slightly fewer units of smartphones in Q1 2018 compared to how it fared in Q1 2017. Gartner explained that the South Korean tech giant’s midtier devices had felt some pressure from Chinese companies (Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo), despite the impressive sales of recent flagships like 2017’s Galaxy Note 8 and this year’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus devices.
In this year’s first three months, Rival Apple has managed to post some year over year growth in terms of quarterly unit sales, allowing the iPhone maker to register a very promising 4 percent improvement compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
To check more stats from Gartner’s newest report, go to the research firm’s official website.
