Global Q1 Smartphone Sales up 3.9%, Despite Double-Digit iPhone Decline

Global smartphone sales jumped 3.9 percent in Q1 to 349 million units despite Apple’s first-ever double-digit iPhone sales decline, Gartner said in a Thursday report. Apple’s iPhone sales declined 14 percent in the quarter, it said. Demand for low-cost smartphones in emerging markets and for affordable 4G smartphones drove much of the industry’s Q1 sales growth, the research firm said. “In a slowing smartphone market where large vendors are experiencing growth saturation, emerging brands are disrupting existing brands' long-standing business models to increase their share," it said. "With such changing smartphone market dynamics, Chinese brands are emerging as the new top global brands.” Samsung widened its market-share lead by more than two percentage points over Apple from a year earlier to 23.2 percent vs. 14.8 percent, but both brands lost share from a year earlier, Gartner said. Android increased its share over iOS to 84.1 percent vs. 14.8 percent (compared with 78.8 percent vs. 17.9 percent a year earlier), it said. But despite Android’s “advancements and its dominant market share, the challenges of profitability remain for a number of Android players,” Gartner said. “This will have an impact on the vendor landscape where new or more innovative business models will increasingly become key to succeed."