Smartphone shipment numbers flip back into the positive for Q2, only just

According to research from Strategy Analytics the global smartphone market is showing early and tenuous signs of a turnaround, with shipments increasing 1% over the second quarter of the year.

Over the course of the three month period, sales reached 340 million units, with Samsung maintaining its position at the top of the leader board, but Chinese budget brand OPPO proving to be one of the winners growing by 137% year-on-year. Apple continued on trend with another less-than-satisfactory performance, selling 7 million less units in comparison to same period in 2015, dropping market share from 14.1% to 11.9%.

“Samsung shipped 77.6 million smartphones worldwide in Q2 2016, growing a healthy 8 percent annually from 71.9 million units in Q2 2015,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics. “Samsung maintained first position with 23 percent share for the quarter, up from 21 percent a year ago.

“With a new Galaxy Note 7 flagship model rumored to be on the way, Samsung will be able to strengthen its smartphone leadership into the second half of the year. Apple fell 15 percent annually and shipped a disappointing 40.4 million smartphones worldwide in Q2 2016. Apple’s global smartphone market share has softened from 14 percent to 12 percent in the past year. Apple continues to face iPhone fatigue among consumers and the new iPhone SE model has not been able to stem that trend.”

The Samsung numbers back up the company’s quarterly results, which were released this week, in which the company posted profits of $7.22 billion, on total revenues of $45.2 billion, up 5% year-on-year. The team claim its IT and mobile business now accounts for more than half of total revenues. With the new Galaxy Note 7 flagship model in the pipeline, the team could be set to report more positive results in the run up to Christmas.

Huawei was another which showed strong performance across the quarter, increasing global market share from 9.0% to 9.4%. This is more good news for the firm, which knocked Apple off the number one spot in China during the last quarter.

“Huawei maintained third position with 9 percent global smartphone market share in Q2 2016, broadly the same level as a year ago,” said Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics. “Huawei’s smartphone growth rate has slowed dramatically, to just 5 percent annually in Q2 2016, compared with 52 percent annual growth in Q2 2015. Huawei is facing rising competition from OPPO, Samsung, Vivo and others, and Huawei’s recent growth spurt has slammed to a halt.”