5G Not Yet Big Enough to ‘Significantly Boost’ 2020 Smartphones, Says IHS

Samsung maintained its leading 21 percent smartphone share last year, its shipments rising 1.7 percent to 295 million, reported IHS Markit Wednesday. The global smartphone market “failed to sustain its growth momentum” in Q4, when shipments declined 1.5 percent to 359.2 million units, said IHS. Full-year shipments fell 2.2 percent to 1.38 billion units, it said. The decrease was slightly less than the 2.4 percent decline in 2018 from 2017. Huawei was No. 2, recording 16.7 percent growth to 240.6 million units. Huawei “started to feel the impact of continued headwinds from U.S. government trade actions,” said IHS. After three quarters of “significant growth,” Huawei’s shipments declined 7.4 percent in Q4, it said. IHS sees 5G smartphones as a “key trend” for 2020. “While shipments are not large enough to significantly boost the market,” fifth-generation will bring “excitement to a growing number of market segments,” it said. “Major chipset vendors have already announced their reduced-cost 5G system-on-chip devices, allowing the industry to start to make a dent in the high pricing.” IDC's report Thursday on 2019's global smartphone shipments pegged the decline at 1.1 percent to 1.37 billion. Samsung raised its market-leading share 0.8 points to 21.6 percent in 2019, despite only a 1.2 percent increase in shipments. Apple captured the top share globally on strong holiday sales, the researcher found: "Despite Huawei's ongoing challenges outside of China," and a 7.1 percent decline in Q4 shipments, "it did manage to overtake Apple for the number 2 position overall."