Huawei, Samsung, Oppo market share rises in Q3 2019, global smartphone sales down by 0.4 percent

In the third quarter of 2019, global smartphone sales contracted by 0.4 percent compared to the third quarter of 2018, however, Huawei, Samsung, and Oppo’s market share increased in the quarter,  according to a report by Gartner. “For the majority of smartphone users, desire has shifted away from owning the least expensive smartphone. Today’s smartphone user is opting for midtier smartphones over premium-tier ones because they offer better value for money,” said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. “In addition, while waiting for 5G network coverage to increase to more countries, smartphone users are delaying their purchase decisions until 2020.” [caption id=“attachment_7462461” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Huawei Mate 20 Pro.[/caption] Owing to the increased demand for midtier smartphones over premium-tier ones, per the report, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo’s market share increased in Q3 2019, whereas Apple’s shares declined. [caption id=“attachment_7703371” align=“alignnone” width=“751”]  Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely to the totals shown. Source: Gartner (November 2019)[/caption] As per Gartner, Huawei was the only company, in Q3 2019, that achieved double-digit growth in smartphone sales. “The company sold 65.8 million smartphones, an increase of 26 percent, year over year. Huawei’s performance in China was the key driver of its global smartphone sales growth. It sold 40.5 million smartphones in China and increased its share of the country’s market by almost 15 percentage points.” This is despite the **ban on Huawei** to access key US technologies, which is yet to be fully implemented as a three-month extension was just announced . Samsung continued to have the highest sales in Q3 2019 with an increase in smartphone sales by 7.8 percent year over year. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone sales continued to decline in the quarter. Apple sold 40.8 million iPhones, a year-over-year decline of 10.7 percent. “In the Greater China market sales of iPhones continued to improve, however, it follows a double-digit decline recorded at the beginning of the year. The **iPhone 11 (review)** , iPhone 11 Pro, and **iPhone 11 Pro Max (review)** saw good initial adoption, which suggests that sales may be positive in the remaining quarter,” said Gupta.