As reported by Canalys, the total volume of shipments of smartphones around the world registered some growth during the second quarter of this year, following a marked decrease in year over year smartphone sales during the first three months of 2016. However, it should be noted that sequentially, smartphone shipment did not actually improve, and past data indicates that the previous year quarter was also relatively slow -- which means that overall, despite posting some growth, the improvement is quite very little (barely even there).
Among phone makers, Samsung is the leader in terms of overall smartphone shipments, posting 80 million units in total. Much of its success during the second quarter of the year can be attributed to the continuing solid sales of its current flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge. The fact that the South Korean mobile giant bundled its Gear VR mobile virtual reality headset with the Galaxy S7 devices might have helped in extending the great sales run of its flagships.
As expected, Apple plays runner up, registering smartphone shipments of about 40 million units. The latest iPhone release is the iPhone SE, which hit stores by the end of March early this year, but as revealed by Apple, the device did not gain much traction in key mobile markets, especially China and India.
On third spot is Huawei, who managed to improve its total smartphone shipments to 31 million units. The Chinese phone maker had previously stated it is aiming to ship 140 million units in 2016. Having only shipped 31 million during the second quarter of this year, Huawei might need to speed things along if it wants to hit its target by the end of the year. One key to achieving that is by improving its presence in the US mobile market.
Registering some growth is always considered a positive, but looking at the bigger picture, it might not mean much. Last month, analyst Gartner has predicted that overall, smartphone sales will decline to 7 percent for this year, and looking into Canalys’ report, it appears that Gartner might still be right on the number.
How times have changed -- back in 2010, the worldwide market for smartphone devices increased a whopping 73 percent. Six years later, it appears that consumers are just not into purchasing new smartphones that much anymore. The reason? A lot of people no longer see any point in getting a new smartphone, especially when the handset they are own are still working perfectly alright.
