Global smartphone shipments rise after two years in Q3 2019: Canalys

The global shipments of smartphones rose by 1 per cent year-on-year to 352.4 million during the quarter ended September led by Samsung and Huawei, according to the latest quarterly research report by Canalys. This is the first time in two years that the global smartphone market grew in the third quarter (Q3) of 2019, the research firm said.

During the September quarter, Samsung had shipped 78.9 million smartphones, which is 22.4 per cent of the total global market while the shipments of Huawei stood at 66.8 million units or 19 per cent of the total share, the Canalys data showed. They were followed by Apple, Xiaomi and Oppo who shipped 43.5 million, 32.5 million and 32.0 million units respectively.

According to the analysis report published on Thursday, Samsung regained its lost market share as it implemented a new product strategy. Its shipments grew by 11 per cent from 71.3 million in the year-ago period. The South Korea-based technology giant aggressively placed the budget Galaxy A series which packs much better price-to-spec.

Samsung has also increased the number of high-end models starting with the Galaxy S10 series in February and continuing with Galaxy Note 10 range. The 5G variants of the Galaxy S10 series and Note 10 series has also helped the company boost its sales volumes.

According to Canalys Research Director Rushabh Doshi, 5G is going to be the next battleground for Samsung. “It is one of very few smartphone vendors to design its own chipsets and modems. It is not, therefore, restricted to the innovation cycle of a third-party component supplier like Qualcomm. If Samsung moves faster than Qualcomm, it can win the race to mid-range smartphones with 5G. Its recent announcement of the Galaxy A90 5G and the upcoming Exynos 980 chipset highlights its strategic priorities,” he said in the report.

Huawei, which stood second in terms of global shipments, saw its Q3 shipments rally by 29 per cent from 51.9 million shipments year-ago. Huawei’s success was led by a surge in its home market in China, however, in many overseas markets, the volume increased sequentially from 21.5 million in Q2 to 25.3 million in Q3, as many distributors and operators resumed procurement for Huawei phones which had been paused in Q2, the report said.

“Its shipments overseas in Q3 were focused on pre-Entity List models, with P30 Lite its best shipper, at close to three million units. But its post-Entity List models, like Mate 30, bring uncertainty because there is resistance from channels in critical overseas markets, like Europe, to support Huawei devices without Google Mobile Services,” Canalys Senior Analyst, Ben Stanton said.

Apple’s shipments in Q3 saw an on-year decline of 7 per cent from 46.9 million units. However, it is an improvement on the double-digit declines in Q1 and Q2 2019.