Huawei, Oppo See Growth in Q1 2016 as Global Smartphone Shipments Fall: Strategy Analytics

According to the Q1 2016 smartphone shipments and market share report by Strategy Analytics, Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi saw a rise in market share year-on-year in the first quarter, while the other two smartphone manufacturers in the top five - Apple and Samsung - saw a drop.

Strategy Analytics says that while Samsung retained its premier position in terms smartphone shipments, it saw a drop of 3.7 million units shipped year-on-year - with 79 million smartphones shipped. It's market share dropped 0.4 percent year-on-year to 24.6 percent. The South Korean tech giant is said to have kept its top spot position mainly because of its flagship Galaxy S7 models and J-series models. As for its rival Apple, the firm retained its number two position with 51.2 million units, but saw a year-on-year drop of 10 million units, and a drop in smartphone market share from 17.7 percent to 15.3 percent.

Talking about the Chinese smartphone brands, Huawei maintained its third position with 8.5 percent market share, which is 3.5 percent more from the same quarter last year. The company's smartphone shipments in the first quarter grew 64 percent year-on-year, to ship an impressive 28.3 million smartphones worldwide. "Huawei is closing the gap on Apple, but Huawei itself is now being chased hard by ambitious rivals like Oppo and Vivo," said Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics.

(Also see: Oppo, Vivo Now Among Top 5 Smartphone Vendors; Oust Lenovo and Xiaomi: IDC)

Oppo also saw a year-on-year growth from 2.4 percent market share in Q1 2015 to 4.6 percent in Q1 2016 due to its increased presence and branding in Asian region. It shipped 15.5 million smartphones, an increase from 8.3 million from the same quarter last year. Xiaomi however, saw a slight fall in shipments because of a rise in Oppo's market share. It shipped a total of 14.6 million smartphones down from 14.9 million in 2015 Q1, however, increased its market share by 0.1 percent to 4.4 percent.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics added that overall global smartphone shipments fell by 3 percent annually from 345 million units in Q1 2015 to 334.6 million units in Q1 2016. "It is the first time ever since the modern smartphone market began in 1996 that global shipments have shrunk on an annualised basis." The drop is said to take place due to the 'increasing penetration maturity' in leading smartphone markets such as China.