OTAN News

Report: Smartphones Swing Up Following Recent Decline

Worldwide shipments of smartphones grew 1.3 percent, year over year, in the first quarter of 2018 following a decline in sales the previous quarter, according to a report from Gartner. Smartphones made up 84 percent of the total mobile phone market, accounting for nearly 384 million of the 455 million units sold. Much of that good news came at the low end of the market, however.

"Demand for premium and high-end smartphones continued to suffer due to marginal incremental benefits during upgrade," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, in a prepared statement. "Demand for entry-level smartphones (sub-$100) and low mid-tier smartphones (sub-$150) improved due to better-quality models."

Samsung led the market with 78.56 million shipments, good enough for 20.5 percent of the market. Both numbers are slightly down, however, over the 78.78 million shipments and 20.8 percent share the company tallied in the same period last year.

In second place, Apple saw some year-on-year growth, boosting shipments from 51.99 million in last year's first quarter to 54.06 million in the most recent quarter. The company's market share improved from 13.7 percent to 14.1 percent.

Huawei held the third spot with 40.43 million sales for a 10.5 percent slice of the market, an improvement from its 34.18 million sales in the same period last year, when it captured 9 percent of smartphone sales.

Source: THE Journal