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Illustration by Joel Arbaje
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Apple
S
the new iPhones have made a dull noise during the holiday season – and new market research figures show that the decline in sales has always been bad.
Apple (ticker: AAPL) reported an 11.8% drop in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter, the largest percentage decline since the first quarter of 2016, according to a Gartner report released Thursday. top rated seller
Samsung Electronics
(South Korea: 005930) also experienced a dip in a flat market, while Chinese low-cost suppliers Huawei and OPPO made huge progress.
Global consumer smartphone sales increased slightly by 0.1% from one year to the next to reach 408.4 million units in the fourth quarter.
Entry-level and mid-priced smartphones are selling well, but demand for high-end smartphones like the iPhone and some Samsung models has continued to decline, said Tuong Nguyen, senior analyst at Gartner . Barron's. At the same time, progressive innovation, coupled with rising prices, has slowed down the decision to replace high-end smartphones, he said.
Apple sold 64.53 million units in the fourth quarter, or 15.8% of the market, compared with 73.18 million, or 17.9% of the market, the same quarter of the previous year. (Apple's shares were down 0.4% to $ 171.38 a share on Thursday). The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Samsung maintained its first place, but sold less than 70.78 million units, a smaller market share (17.3%) compared to a year ago.
Huawei has been the biggest winner of sales growth, as it has been in recent quarters, with sales of 60.41 million units, or 14.8% of the market, compared with 43 , 89 million, or 10.8% of the market, a year ago. Like other Chinese suppliers, most of its growth has been in the region, the world's largest market for smartphones.
With the largest conference on smartphones, the Mobile World Congress, scheduled to begin Monday in Barcelona, several suppliers – under the leadership of Samsung – are taking increasingly radical measures to revolutionize the market.
On Wednesday, Samsung announced a collapsible phone of $ 1,980, called Galaxy Fold, as well as its latest flagship models, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 +. The Fold is expected to be the first of several flexible phones from major smartphone manufacturers, with the goal of convincing consumers to pay more for multi-screen devices that act as phones, tablets and cameras.
Apple should be one of these futures players, based on a recent patent update for such a device.
The company, which has more than 10 years of sales on an iPhone and has become the first to exceed the market value of $ 1 trillion, has stopped declaring its iPhone shipments due to the slowdown in its sales during last quarters.
The iPhone's quarterly business figure plunged 15 percent to 51.98 billion dollars year-over-year, Apple said last month. Sales of its flagship product in China fell 20 percent in the fourth quarter, double the sales of the Chinese smartphone market, according to an IDC market research report.
In early January, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a rare warning about lower-than-expected sales for the December quarter. Analysts and investors strongly dissect the results of the iPhone because the segment of smartphones represents more than 60% of the total revenues of Apple.
Write to Jon Swartz at [email protected]
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