Smartphone sales drop 6% worldwide, but Huawei and Xiaomi continue to grow, Samsung the most affected

Sale of smartphones 3Q 2018

It seems that the smartphone market has started to hit the saturation point, and this has been showing since last year, with a sustained decline in unit sales quarter over quarter. The IDC, one of the important firms that closely follows the figures, has published the results of the third quarter of 2018, where we see that, as a whole, the entire market has sold 6% less than the same quarter of the previous year .

The most striking thing about the report is that while some have been more affected than others by this apparent recession, there are two major players in the industry that, on the contrary, have gained a lot of ground, we are talking about Huawei and Xiaomi, who, despite the situation, have managed to increase their sales respectively by 32.9% and 21.2%, let’s see the figures.

Sale of smartphones 3Q 2018

Samsung the biggest affected

However, perhaps the most worrying data is the considerable drop that Samsung has had in sales, with a decrease of -13.4% along with the rest of the small manufacturers in the industry, who together they sold -19.9% ​​less than the same period the previous year.

“Samsung is losing ground to Huawei, Xiaomi and other Chinese rivals in the huge markets of China and India, the firm must solve its problems in China and India before it is too late,” said Neil Mawston, CEO of Strategy Analytics.

Samsung has admitted that the encryption was not as expected in its latest earnings report, however, it also states that the fourth quarter of 2018 could level the balance a bit in your favor, after the launch of the Galaxy A7 and A9, two super mid-range that promise great sales, along with the promise of revolutionizing 2019 with the arrival of its first phone with a folding screen, something that together could wake up the market a bit in general for next year.

The mid-range has been the key to the success of Xiaomi and Huawei

Everything seems to indicate that neither the Galaxy S9 nor the Note 9 were enough for the South Korean to improve its sales in 2018, and despite the fact that Apple managed to stay almost immovable in sales with an increase of 0.5%, the distribution of market share leaving Huawei above Apple and very close to Samsung.

Sale of smartphones 3Q 2018

Xiaomi Pocophone F1

The main reason for this trend is the mastery that Chinese companies have mastered in delivering mid-range terminals, with very low values, and premium specifications currently seen in high-end phones that double or triple in price. A very clear example of this is the Xiaomi Pocophone F1, a phone with the Snapdragon 845 processor seen in high-end phones like the Galaxy S9, but with a retail price of only $ 350.

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