Samsung's dominance further declines when the telephony market collapses by 6%

The global smartphone market suffered a 6% drop in total sales, according to a third quarter report released in 2018 by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Similar to the drop in smartphone sales in the first quarter of the year, IDC believes that the slowdown in the Chinese market is one of the main factors behind the global crisis. As China accounts for about a third of total global smartphone sales, a reduction in Chinese purchases tends to hit the market hard.

"The Chinese domestic market continues to struggle as overall consumer spending around smartphones has declined," said Ryan Reith, vice president of IDC's global mobile tracking program. "High penetration rates, combined with tough economic times, have slowed the world's largest smartphone market."

The fall in sales of Samsung is another important reason for this decline. While the Korean company still occupies the top of the pack with a market share of 20.3%, sales fell 13.4%, from 83.3 million in the third quarter of 2017 to 72.2 million the latter quarter. According to the report, the pressures induced by manufacturers like Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi in India and Indonesia are the most likely causes of Samsung's sales plummet. Although the Galaxy Note 9 has sold well, Samsung's lack of powerful devices in the midrange and budget is starting to seriously hurt the company in some markets. However, Samsung is looking to change that by offering more feature-rich midrange options like the Galaxy A9.

Other manufacturers have weathered the recession better. After surpbading Apple to become the world's second-largest handset maker, Huawei's reach has increased by 32.9 percent, for a total of 52 million sales this quarter. Apple's sales also increased, but only 0.5% to 46.9 million. IDC expects that the recent release of a new range of iPhone will result in increased sales during the holiday season.

Xiaomi also continues to grow, adding 6 million sales to its numbers from the third quarter of 2017. If it continues on its strong growth, another Chinese company could outperform Apple – but this seems unlikely for at least the next few years. with further expansion in the UK

This is the fourth consecutive quarter in which the smartphone market has declined and shows no sign of stopping. It seems that most consumers are happy to wait longer before upgrading their phone – and this delay is hurting the market as a whole. However, this may not be an eternity, and IDC expects growth to return in 2019.