2016 was predicted to be a slow year for the markets of technology by many analysts. A doom was predicted over the markets, yet things flourished. Globally, it has been witnessed that the smartphone sale has been increasing. The smartphone markets continued defying the trends, and grew by 4.3% in Q2 2016 when compared to Q2 2015. This is as per the data obtained by Gartner market research team.
Based on Gartner’s data, there was a 4.3% increase when compared to 2015. The company indicated that 344 Million smartphone devices were sold across the planet. However, on a rather interesting note, the sales boomed for only 5 out of 10 names in the Top 10 smartphone manufacturers list. In addition to that, 4 out of these 5 are based out of China! The Chinese smartphone markets are at a major boom phase now. The 5 names that boomed are those of Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, BBK Communications Equipment, and Samsung.
On another interesting note, BBK owns Chinese giants Oppo as well as Vivo. Apple, however did not have a successful run in the markets this quarter. The company has been witnessing quarterly decline, and fell by 7.7% in Q2 2016. Samsung beat Apple by 10% more market share. Apple’s sales fell in North America and most of Asia-Pacific regions. However, China was the worst blow to Apple, as the sales declined by nearly 26%.
Looking at the top 5 names in the list above, another interesting observation was made. Oppo, which has established itself as the number one smartphone manufacturer by market share in China, continued to boom. The company witnessed a 129% boost in sales compared to Q2 2015.
All major ‘mature’ markets except Japan witnessed a decline in sales. All the ‘emerging markets’ except Latin America boomed, and are growing by an average of 9.9%. It can hence be said that the time for premium devices might slowly be declining, but Samsung, with their Note 7 and S7/S7 Edge devices continues to defy all trends. It would be interesting to see where the markets end up being a year from now.
