Apple’s Share of Flat Smartphone Market Drops to 15%

According to the IDC’s latest smartphone market figures, iPhone’s share of the market has dropped to 15.3% in the March quarter. This comes in the face of an overall flat market for smartphones in the first quarter of 2016.

Apple’s Share of Flat Smartphone Market Drops to 15%

Apple’s Q1 sales for 2016 have amounted to 51.2 million, compared to 61.2 million units sold in Q1 of 2015 with a market share of 18.3%. Samsung on the other hand shipped 81.9 million smartphones with a market share of 24.5%, down only 0.1% from last year’s Q1. The overall sales have also hit a new low. The smartphone shipments have totaled to 334.9 million with an increase of only 500,000 units in one year.

Along China’s maturing smartphone adoption curve, the companies most aligned with growth are those with products serving increasingly sophisticated consumers. Lenovo benefited with ASPs below US$150 in 2013, and Xiaomi picked up the mantle with ASPs below US$200 in 2014 and 2015. Now Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, which play mainly in the sub-US$250 range, are positioned for a strong 2016,”

said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

“These new vendors would be well-advised not to rest on their laurels though, as this dynamic smartphone landscape has shown to even cult brands like Xiaomi that customer loyalty is difficult to consistently maintain.”