Samsung continues to lead the charts as a global leader in the smartphone industry despite a flat in the sales figure in the first quarter of 2016, as revealed by International Data Corporation (IDC).
As per the report released by IDC –a research firm, the worldwide smartphone market registered only 0.2 percent growth as compared to Q1, 2015. In the first quarter of 2016, total 334.9 million smartphones shipped which is barely 0.6 million from last year marking smallest growth in terms of back to back years.
The report suggests that Smartphone ownership has reached a saturation point in most of the major markets across the globe. This is the reason why tricks like slight betterment in hardware next generation tag phones are not alluring buyers as per the expectations. Most players are facing difficulty in persuading users to dump their existing smartphone for a new one.
Samsung is leading the pack with 81.9 million shipped phones. Samsung has a lot to owe to the success of new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge (first impression). The phone has been in demand world over ever since it made its debut in March. Apple figures have also taken a dent as the company sold 51.2 million as compared to 61.2 in the same period last year. However, this dips in the sale couldn’t dislodge Apple from the second position. In terms of percentage, Samsung currently leads with 24.5 percent market share followed by Apple with a share of 15.3 percent.
Huawei‘s 58 percent sales boost from a year ago helped lift its market share to 8.2 percent and secure the third spot on the ladder. Two new Chinese Smartphone nudged out Lenovo and Xiaomi to make it to the IDC’s list of top 5 mobile brands in the world. These two brands are Oppo and Vivo. Oppo saw 153 per cent growth with 18.5 million smartphone sale in last quarter to grab 5.5 percent market share. Oppo is followed by Vivo which also registered an impressive growth of 123 percent and rose its market share to 4.3 percent.
“Outside of China, many of these brands are virtually unknown and the ability of these rapidly growing Chinese vendors to gain entry into mature markets such as the United States and Western Europe will be essential if they have aspirations of catching Apple or Samsung at the top,” said IDC analyst Anthony Scarsella.
