Global smartphone sales grew 4.3% in second quarter: Gartner

Global smartphone sales grew 4.3 per cent to 344 million units in April-June of 2016 over the same period last year, affected by slowing demand in mature markets and decline in feature phone segment, research firm Gartner said.

“Demand for premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers wait for new hardware launches in the second half of the year,” Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta said.

In addition, the decline in sales of feature phones (down 14 per cent) pulled down the overall sales of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2016, he added.

Samsung led the tally with 22.3 per cent share, followed by Apple (12.9 per cent), Huawei (8.9 per cent), Oppo (5.4 per cent) and Xiaomi (4.5 per cent) in the said quarter.

All mature markets, except Japan, saw slackening demand for smartphones leading to 4.9 per cent decline in the segment, Gartner said.
In contrast, the emerging regions, except Latin America, saw a 9.9 per cent growth clip. In terms of the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android regained share over iOS to achieve an 86 per cent share in the quarter under review, Gartner said.

Android’s performance continued to be driven by demand for mid- to lower-end smartphones from emerging markets as also premium smartphones, which recorded a 6.5 per cent increase, it added.

Apple’s iOS took 12.9 per cent share while Windows and BlackBerry had 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively.