IDC: Samsung is the Top Smartphone Manufacturer Worldwide for Q3 2017

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IDC has released its report for the worldwide smartphone market for Q3 2017. According to results from its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone OEMs shipped a total of 373.1 million smartphones worldwide in Q3 2017. Shipment volumes increased by 2.7% year-over-year, and by 7.4% quarter-on-quarter.

In Q3 2017, all of the top five vendors experienced positive year-over-year growth according to IDC, with Xiaomi’s growth being the highest as it doubled its sales from this quarter a year ago. Asia/Pacific, excluding China and Japan, performed the best by far as it grew double digits.

According to IDC, the smartphone industry has continued to grow, but at a much slower pace than in previous years. The report stated that other smartphone OEMs outside of the top 5 leading vendors continue to struggle, and the “industry leaders are quickly forming two camps”. The first camp consists of Samsung, Apple and Huawei; all of them are able to drive significant volumes at the high end. The second camp consists of Chinese OEMs that are finding success outside of their home market of China.

According to IDC’s tracker, Samsung remained the overall leader in the worldwide smartphone market with 83.3 million units shipped, up 9.5% from last year. The company’s flagship devices continued to perform well in Q3 2017 as it introduced the new Galaxy Note 8. Samsung’s latest device has witnessed robust initial demand. Despite the success of the three major flagship models in the quarter, Samsung reported that overall revenue decreased within the mobile division quarter-on-quarter. The decrease was caused by a higher blend of more affordable models in the product mix.

In second position, Apple’s smartphone shipments increased to 46.7 million units, which were driven by the launch of the new iPhone 8 family and which were up 2.6% from the 45.5 million units last year. The company announced three new devices at their September event, including the $999 iPhone X. As the iPhone X only released on November 3, demand for the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models was weak compared to previous iPhones. Older iPhones such as the SE, 6S, and 7 all received price cuts late in Q3.

Huawei remained third and according to IDC, the company continues to gain momentum in the market as the it shipped 39.1 million units, up 16.1% from last year. The Mate 9 and P10 flagship models continued to drive volume at the high end while Huawei’s Honor brand was successful with the affordable Honor 6X and mid-range Honor 8.

Oppo’s shipments grew by 19% year-over-year in Q3 2017 with 30.7 million smartphones shipped in the quarter. The report stated that the company remained the number 4 ranked smartphone vendor worldwide and “its continued expansion outside of mainland China continues to be a success”. The company launched a couple of new smartphones in India during the quarter. It also started participating in the online festival sales along with expanding its exclusive stores. In China, the R11 (as well as the R11 Plus) was its most popular phone that helped it gain momentum in its home market.

Xiaomi had the strongest year-over-year growth even though it remained in fifth position worldwide. The company more than doubled its shipments from 13.6 million in Q3 2016 to 27.6 million in Q3 2017.

IDC stated that the biggest catalyst for growth for Xiaomi was its success in the Indian smartphone market, which was heavily supported by mega online festival sales during the month of September. Discounts on most of the models led to Xiaomi selling four million smartphones in a month in India. In offline retail, its continued expansion of its preferred partner program and the opening of new Mi Stores helped the company consolidate its position.

IDC also posted a detailed breakdown of market share and shipments per vendor comparison between Q3 2016 and Q3 2017, which can be read at the source link.