Chinese company sold more than 32 million sets in the second half of 2019
Smartphone manufacturers began to present their financial reports for the second half of 2019 and the result was quite interesting. Overall, the industry sold a total of 333.2 million smartphones in the second half of 2019 alone – a 6.5% increase over the previous quarter.
Even with trade tensions between the United States and China, which saw a drop in smartphone sales in the first half of the year, business performance was interesting. One of the highlights of the result is Apple , which despite having its shares valued with average growth of 1%, its smartphone division fell by 8 million units in the two quarters.
Smartphone shipments worldwide fell 2.3% in the second half and a good chunk of this drop was due to Apple’s market performance, which shipped only 33.8 million iPhones, continuing its annual sales decline. But that number becomes more worrisome for the maker as Chinese Xiaomi’s results compare, trailing Apple with just 1.5 million devices, reaching an incredible 32.3 million units shipped to retailers.
According to market research by consulting firm IDC, this result indicates that Xiaomi could pass Apple and become the 3rd largest smartphone maker in the world, if growth in the segment continues.
What “kept” Xiaomi in 4th place in the ranking was competition with the other Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei , which even with a 0.6% drop in the second quarter, was able to beat the shipping record and take 62% of the market.
Shipment volumes in China hit an all-time high and accounted for 62% of Huawei’s 2Q19 total with 36.4 million units. The China success during the quarter was in part due to actions taken following the U.S trade ban as Huawei relocated significant human resources back to China with a focus on distribution channel management in the Chinese lower-tier cities.
This proves the strength that the manufacturer has in the market and how its results should continue to grow.
The lead still remains with Samsung, which, despite having a hard time getting its flagship devices like the Galaxy S10 , kept strong in mid-range and budget device sales, reaching 75.5 million smartphones sold – an annual growth of 5.5%. Much of this result came from sales of A-series smartphones that are still the best mid-rangers of the manufacturer.
