Q2 Smartphone Decline Reflects ‘Continued Challenges’ in Global Regions, Says IDC

Q2 smartphone shipments declined 2.3 percent globally on “continued challenges” across most major world regions, said IDC Wednesday. Vendors shipped 333.2 million smartphones, a 6.5 percent sequential increase from Q1, it said. China and the U.S. had the sharpest quarterly declines, though the declines in China in the first half were “less severe” than those in the back half of 2018, “suggesting some recovery is underway in the world's largest single market,” it said. Apple had the worst Q2 decline, with iPhone unit shipments down 18.2 percent from Q2 a year earlier, said IDC. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a fiscal Q3 earnings call Tuesday that iPhone sustained another double-digit revenue decline in the quarter, but the rate of erosion was less severe than in earlier quarters (see 1907310030). Apple maintained the No. 3 global position, but its 10.1 percent share was only 0.4 percentage points higher than that of fourth-place Xiaomi, it said. Samsung held firmly onto the No. 1 position with 22.7 percent share, said IDC.