Samsung Tops Shrinking Smartphone Market in Q1 2018: Counterpoint

As global smartphone market declined for the second successive quarter in the first quarter of 2018, Samsung remained the leader, shipping 78 million devices and capturing 21.7 percent market share, Counterpoint Research said on Wednesday.

Samsung shipments grew 5 percent with the launch of its latest flagship, the Galaxy S9 and S9+.

Apple which surprised the analysts with a strong fiscal 2018 second-quarter results, shipped 52.2 million devices, reporting 14.5 percent market share at second spot.

According to Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, global smartphone shipments declined 3 percent annually in the first quarter of 2018.

Top 10 players now capture 76 percent of the market, thereby leaving over 600 brands competing for the remaining 24 percent of the market.

"The waning smartphone demand is due to a slowdown in developed markets where replacement cycles are lengthening with overall smartphone features and design reaching its peak," Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.

However, emerging markets still offer a sizeable opportunity for OEMs to expand and grow as smartphone penetration by users in still around 45 percent.

"The average selling price (ASP) of smartphones is increasing, too, in emerging markets with users upgrading from entry level to the mid smartphone segment," Pathak noted.

Huawei with 10.9 percent and Xiaomi with 7.5 percent market share followed Samsung and Apple.

Oppo with 6.1 percent share was at fifth place.

"The saturating China smartphone market is forcing the Chinese smartphone players to invest and expand beyond their home market. The efforts have been realised as the performance of Chinese brands in MEA, Europe and the rest of the Asian markets has been strong," said Research Analyst Shobhit Srivastava.

The China market decline in Q1 2018, affected the overall growth of some of the key Chinese brands including Oppo and Vivo. Both saw a decline in the quarter as a result of the China market slowdown.

Apple grew 32 percent (YoY) in China due to strong performance of its iPhone X.

While the promotions were not aggressive for the iPhone X, except in operator channels, its demand remains healthy in the market.