Huawei maintained its second place in China, but
| A major blow is a foregone conclusion if global sanctions are fully implemented.
Samsung Maintains Global No. 1 Rank in Q1 2019

Gartner announced global smartphone sales for the first quarter of 2019 on the 29th.

According to Gartner, global smartphone sales to end users totaled 373 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 2.7% decrease year-over-year.

Despite its lack of sales in the US, Huawei maintained its second-place position and continues to narrow the gap with Samsung.

“Demand for premium smartphones is lower than for mainstream smartphones,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “This has impacted brands like Samsung and Apple, which focus on high-end smartphones.”

He continued, “As 4G feature phones offer consumers significant advantages at lower prices, the pace of upgrading from feature phones to smartphones has slowed, which has also reduced demand for utility smartphones.”

As innovation in flagship smartphones slows and prices rise, smartphone replacement cycles continue to lengthen. In the US and China, which have the highest smartphone sales, sales decreased by 15.8% and 3.2%, respectively, in the first quarter of 2019.

In the first quarter of 2019, Samsung maintained its top spot in global smartphone sales, achieving a 19.2% market share. Huawei achieved the highest year-over-year growth rate among the top five global smartphone vendors, selling 58.4 million units, a 44.5% increase year-over-year.

Sales of Huawei smartphones increased across all regions. “Huawei performed particularly well in Europe and Greater China, where sales grew by 69% and 33%, respectively,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst.

Huawei maintained its second-place position in the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2019, continuing its dominance in Greater China with a 29.5% market share.

“If Google really does stop providing emergency apps and services to Huawei smartphones, it will have a major impact on Huawei’s international smartphone business, which accounts for half of its revenue,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Huawei. “This will not only raise concerns among customers but will also hinder Huawei’s growth in the short term.”


Samsung and Apple's annual growth rates decline
Samsung's smartphone sales fell 8.8% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019, but the company still held the top spot globally.

“Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10, received a good response,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst. “However, the product was only shipped at the end of the first quarter, so only a small portion of the sales were recorded.”
 
He added, "Samsung has strengthened its mid- to low-priced smartphone lineup by reorganizing the A and J series and introducing the new M series, but it has not been able to make a significant impact due to aggressive competition from Chinese manufacturers."

Apple iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2019 amounted to 44.6 million units, a 17.6% decrease year-over-year.

“While lower iPhone prices in the market helped boost demand, they weren’t enough to restore growth in the first quarter,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Logic. “Apple is facing a long replacement cycle as users are not finding enough value in replacing their existing iPhones.”


The competition for 5th place continues
Vivo sold 27.4 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2019, beating Xiaomi, which sold 27.2 million units, to take fifth place.

Vivo achieved double-digit growth in the smartphone market in the first quarter of 2019, fueled by cutting-edge features such as in-display fingerprint recognition, a slider camera, fast charging, and a near-bezel-less display.

“We expect Vivo to perform better if it expands its range of low-cost smartphones and sells these products in emerging Asia Pacific,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst.