
The serious company Gartner just released its smartphone sales figures for the third quarter of 2018. Overall, this market remained relatively stable thanks to the excellent performance of the leading Chinese manufacturers, led by Huawei and Xiaomi.
The trend of slowing down the growth of the global smartphone market continues. According to the latest figures published by Gartner for the third quarter of 2018, sales of this device increased by 1.4% worldwide. It means that 389 million terminals were sold during the three months concerned (July, August, and September). According to Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, the smartphone market would have declined by 5.2% without the contribution of Huawei and Xiaomi.
These two manufacturers show the most substantial growth compared to the previous year. Huawei once again confirms his second place, behind Samsung and ahead of Apple. The Chinese manufacturer sold 52 million smartphones in the third quarter and grew by 43% compared to the previous year. Over the period, Huawei enjoyed a 13.4% market share, up almost four points. His competitor Xiaomi is still a step back from the podium. With 33 million mobile phones sold between July and September, the company grew by 23% in volume. Xiaomi smartphones accounted for 8.5% of global smartphone sales in the third quarter.
Samsung is losing shares, Apple sales mark a stop
Samsung is in a completely different dynamic and is suffering from the rise of it’s Chinese competitors. The South Korean giant sold 73 million smartphones over the period and is still far ahead of its pursuers. However, this figure is down 14% from 2017, and Samsung lost 2.4 percentage points of market share. Chaebol suffers from disappointing sales of its flagship products, the Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note9, while its price positioning in the mid-range segment is struggling to compete with that of Chinese manufacturers.
Apple is limiting the damage with steady sales in the third quarter of 2018. The Californian company has delivered 45 million of his iPhones worldwide, maintaining it’s market share at around 11.8%. The fourth quarter figures will probably be more interesting to watch, with the new iPhone Xs and Xs Max series being released at the end of the period under review, while the iPhone Xr arrived at the end of October.