Gartner reports that among the top five global companies, only Chinese companies saw sales growth.
Samsung Electronics saw the sharpest decline, with overall mobile phone sales down 1.3%.

Gartner Inc. announced that the three largest Chinese mobile phone manufacturers—Huawei, Oppo, and BBK Communication Equipment (BBK)—accounted for 21% of global smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2016. Gartner said that of the top five smartphone vendors worldwide, only these three saw increases in both sales and market share during the quarter.

“Chinese brands led the smartphone market growth in the third quarter of 2016,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “Smartphone sales in China grew by 12.4%, and the companies that most successfully capitalized on this growth were Oppo and BBK, which accounted for 81% and 89% of their smartphone sales in China, respectively. Both companies are also growing at a significant rate in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Russia.”

▲ Huawei's latest premium smartphone, the Mate 9.

Global smartphone sales to end users totaled 373 million units in the third quarter of 2016, a 5.4% increase over the same period last year. However, overall mobile phone sales fell 1.3% as the popularity of feature phones waned.

Samsung Electronics had a strong start to the third quarter, but sales of its high-end Note series declined following battery issues that caused some Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire. Samsung's overall smartphone sales in the third quarter fell 14.2% year-over-year, marking its worst performance ever. The previous record low for Samsung smartphone sales was the fourth quarter of 2014, when sales fell 12.3% year-over-year.

"While the decision to withdraw the Galaxy Note 7 from the market was the right one, the negative impact on Samsung's brand makes it unlikely that smartphone sales will recover in the short term," said Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung is desperately looking to regain the trust of its partners and consumers by successfully launching the Galaxy S8."


▲Global smartphone sales to end users by manufacturer in Q3 2016 (unit: thousands of units)

Apple's iPhone sales continued their downward trend in the third quarter, declining 6.6%. Apple's global smartphone market share fell to 11.5%, its lowest level since the first quarter of 2009. Sales in the US and China, its largest markets, fell 8.5% and 31%, respectively, indicating that the iPhone 7 failed to drive replacement demand.

Huawei narrowed the gap with Apple in smartphone market share to less than 3 percentage points in the third quarter of this year. Honor products, with their superior features and competitiveness, have continued to perform well in global markets, and are expected to maintain their strong growth this year thanks to their expansion into the European and American markets.


▲Global smartphone sales to end users by operating system in the third quarter of 2016 (unit: thousands of units)

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android has steadily gained market share from iOS, reaching nearly 88%. Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner, said, “Despite the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7, the windfall for the iPhone 7 Plus will be minimal,” adding, “This is because existing Galaxy Note 7 users are likely to switch to other Samsung smartphone models or continue to use Android devices in the future.”

He said, "In the short term, other Android vendors are likely to benefit to some extent. This includes Huawei and other Chinese smartphone makers that have entered the premium Android smartphone segment. The discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 will also be a boon for Google, which has begun selling the Pixel and Pixel XL in mature markets."