Canalys research has revealed that the global smartphone market has grown for the first time in two years in Q3 2019. The increase marks an end to two years of decline for the market.
Samsung topped the Q3 2019 rankings after shipping 78.9 million devices with Huawei coming in second with 66.8 million units. Apple rounded out the top three, shipping 43.5 million units. Xioami and Oppo completed the top five vendors, shipping 32.5 million and 32.0 million units respectively.
Samsung shipments are up 11 per cent from Q3 2018 after implementing aggressive product strategies to regain lost market share. The vendor has increased the number of models starting with the Galaxy S10 in February and continuing with the new Galaxy Note10.
The Note10 comes with two different screen sizes for the first time and gives customers the option of separate 5G variants which has had a positive impact on profitability for Samsung’s high-end devices. The Galaxy Note10 has outperformed last year’s Note9 by more than 5 per cent.
Canalys research director Rushabh Doshi said: “5G is the next battleground for Samsung.
“It is one of very few smartphone vendors to design its own chipsets and modems. It is not, therefore, restricted to the innovation cycle of a third-party component supplier like Qualcomm.
If Samsung moves faster than Qualcomm, it can win the race to mid-range smartphones with 5G.”
Huawei boosted its shipments by 29 per cent in Q3 which was a good result for the Chinese vendor after the damage caused by the US Entity List ruling in Q2.
Its rampant performance in China was enough for Huawei to maintain second place although the impact of the overseas market should not be understated.
The volume of its overseas markets increased from 21.5 million in Q2 to 25.3 million in Q3 as distributors and operators resumed procurement for Huawei devices which ad been paused in Q2.
The demand subsequently increased and caused a surge in orders.
Canalys senior analyst Ben Stanton said: “Huawei is not out of the woods yet, Its shipments overseas in Q3 were focused on pre-Entity List models, with P30 Lite its best shipper, at close to three million units.
“But its post-Entity List models, like Mate 30, bring uncertainty because there is resistance from channels in critical overseas markets, like Europe, to support Huawei devices without Google Mobile Services.”
Apple experienced 7 per cent decline in Q3 which was largely caused by poor performances from the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max in the lead up to its September launch event.
Canalys research analyst Vincent Thielke said: “iPhone 11 has launched to strong reviews, It has tangible improvements in camera and battery life, and its discount versus the iPhone XR was a welcome surprise to consumers.
“However, Apple devices do not have 5G and it will have to contend with that in early 2020.
“Apple will need an unconventional strategy to keep its volume high in the early stages of next year, which makes rumours of an upcoming entry-level iPhone launch in H1 2020 unsurprising.”