Samsung Regains Top Spot in Q1 Smartphone Shipments; Apple Slips to 14.4% Share

Global smartphone shipments advanced 6 percent to 353 million units in Q1, said a Wednesday Strategy Analytics report. Apple’s share slipped a percentage point to 14.4 percent share on “lackluster” sales of 50.8 million units, while Oppo was the quarter’s "star performer," its share rising to 7.8 percent on 27.6 million shipments, a 78 percent improvement from Q1 a year earlier, said the report. Samsung regained top position with 23 percent share, shipping 80.2 million units, and has “done well to recover quickly from its recent Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco," said analyst Neil Mawston. Strategy Analytics expects the Galaxy S8 portfolio to drive Samsung’s upward momentum through the middle of 2017, Mawston said. Apple iPhone shipments declined year-on-year in four of the past five quarters, Mawston said. “Apple has been unable to capitalize on Samsung’s Note 7 missteps, and it is clear that Apple has to do something radical with its rumored upcoming iPhone 8 portfolio in the second half of this year to arrest the ongoing slowdown,” he said. Huawei maintained the third spot with 10 percent global smartphone share in Q1, up from 8 percent a year ago, said analyst Woody Oh, but its year-on-year smartphone growth rate more than halved, to 22 percent from 64 percent, on “intense competition” from Oppo, Vivo and other emerging Chinese rivals, said Oh. Vivo was fourth with 6.3 percent share on shipments of 22.1 million phones, and LG held pace at fifth, selling 14.8 million phones for 4.2 percent market share, it said. The 2017 growth outlook is improving due to economic recovery and stronger consumer sentiment in major regions like China and Brazil, said the research firm.