Despite the Note 7 fiasco, Samsung quickly recovered its smartphone sales to top the global shipment charts. According to the latest data revealed by International Data Corporation (IDC) on Top Five Smartphone Vendors Worldwide, Samsung shipped closed to 80 million devices in the first quarter of 2017, up from 77.5 million in the previous quarter, accounting for nearly 23 per cent of the market share.
Second to Samsung is the Cupertino giant Apple that sold about 51.6 million smartphones, about 26.7 million less than what it sold in the previous quarter. Though compared to Q1 2016 shipments, Apple hasn’t lost much of the market share, but it is declining slowly and steadily.
Worldwide, smartphone shipments grew 4.3% in 1Q17, which was slightly higher than IDC’s previous forecast of 3.6% growth. The data from IDC claims that a total of 347.4 million smartphones were sold in the first quarter of 2017 worldwide. Though the market had been deemed sluggish, consumers continue to show demand for smartphones, flagships in particular.
A successful second flagship came in the form of Galaxy S7 last year and ran huge discounts in Q1 2017. Samsung also altered the course for its mid-range smartphones by offering top-end features. IDC claims the J-Series and A-Series “drove significant volumes in both emerging and developed markets”.
The third and fourth slots are taken by Chinese smartphone makers Huawei and Oppo that registered significant growth. The shipment grew by 6 million for both the companies, raising their market share by 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively, compared to last year’s Q1 shipments.
Huawei’s Honor brand and the Y series remained the more affordable options to the costlier Samsung and Apple devices and hence a growth driver for the period.
