Smartphone Sales Record Slowest Growth Rate Since 2013; Apple and Huawei Gain, Samsung Slips: Gartner

Gartner said worldwide smartphone sales recorded the slowest growth rate since 2013 in the second quarter of 2015. Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users totalled 330 million units, an increase of 13.5 percent over the same period in 2014.

"While demand for lower-cost 3G and 4G smartphones continued to drive growth in emerging markets, overall smartphone sales remained mixed region by region in the second quarter of 2015," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

Emerging Asia-Pacific (excluding China), Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa were the fastest-growing regions, driven by good performance from Chinese and local vendors. By contrast, smartphone sales in China fell for the first time year over year, recording a 4 percent decline.

"China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 percent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015. Its poor performance negatively affected the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter," said Gupta. "China has reached saturation -- its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers. Beyond the lower-end phone segment, the appeal of premium smartphones will be key for vendors to attract upgrades and to maintain or grow their market share in China."

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q15 (Thousands of Units).

Source: Gartner (August 2015)The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola both in 2Q15 and 2Q14.

Despite the launch of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung's premium phones continued to be challenged by Apple's large-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Samsung lost 4.3 percentage points in market share and declined 5.3 percent in unit sales in the second quarter of 2015. Huawei recorded the highest sales growth rate of 46.3 percent, thanks to strong overseas sales and 4G smartphone sales in China.

iPhone sales increased 36 percent, which helped Apple gain 2.4 percentage points in market share. Apple recorded strong iPhone replacements in both emerging and mature markets - and particularly in China. Total iPhone sales in China grew 68 percent to 11.9 million units. Apple's double-digit growth in the high-end segment continued to negatively impact its rivals' premium phone sales and profit margins.

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android's global share was affected by the weak performance of China in the second quarter of 2015 and the strong performance in China of Apple, which has taken share from Android for the last three quarters.

"Android saw its lowest year-over-year growth of 11 percent with share reaching 82.2 percent in the second quarter of 2015," said Gupta. Microsoft continued to struggle to generate wider demand for Windows Phone devices - even at the lower end. "In light of Microsoft's recent cuts in its mobile hardware business, we'll await signs of its long-term commitment in the smartphone market."

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q15 (Thousands of Units).

Source: Gartner (August 2015)

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 446 million units during the second quarter of 2015. The performance was flat (0.4 per cent) year over year. Vendors that are focused on the emerging markets, such as Huawei, ZTE, TCL Communication and Micromax, benefited from high demand in these markets, while global vendors such as Sony, Samsung, and HTC struggled to achieve growth at the high end of the market.

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q15 (Thousands of Units).

Source: Gartner (August 2015)The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola both in 2Q15 and 2Q14.