Apple is already going through a rough patch from the past few months due to a decline in overall shipments. Unlike other major OEMs, the Cupertino giant is hardest hit with the weakened global smartphone demand, cites Canalys report. The smartphone shipments globally fell by 6.8 percent coming down from 336.8 million shipments to 212 million Q1 2019.
Apple saw the worst decline this year with sales dampening by 23.2 percent. It is the steepest drop with shipments going down from 52.2 million units in Q1 2018 to 40.2 Million in Q1 2019, resulting in a 15.5% overall share. Apple saw the highest loss of 30% among all the top six brands this quarter. Ben Stanton, an analyst at Canalys, termed it as “the largest single-quarter decline in the history of the iPhone.”
Apple smartphone sales significantly dropped in the United States and China this year. Xiaomi, Oppo, Samsung, and Apple all saw a massive decrease in its shipments on a Year-on-Year basis. Xiaomi saw a 10.2% decline while the Oppo remained at fifth position with a 6% drop. Despite the Galaxy S10‘s strong demand, Samsung struggled to surpass the last quarter sales by 10%.
The smartphone shipments crippled due to multiple reasons – increasing average selling price, higher quality devices, longer replacement periods, etc. The decline in Apple’s shipments can be attributed to some additional reasons like more lengthy replacement time and heftier pricing. However, Apple is now focusing on services to bring in more revenue.
The Chinese smartphone makers – Huawei and Vivo are the only OEMs witnessing considerable gains in terms of both market share and shipments. Huawei is now aiming to become the largest smartphone manufacturer, by fending off Samsung from the top spot. Although, it would not be easy as Samsung is looking to infuse new Galaxy A series devices, Galaxy Fold, and several other mid-range products in the market.
