The latest figures from IDC about worldwide smartphone shipments continue to show just why the battle to become the world’s largest smartphone seller is still just as fierce as ever.
The early results from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that there were 337.2 million smartphones shipped worldwide in Q2 of 2015. That’s an 11.6 percent increase from the same quarter in 2014 — which is the second highest quarter to date.
“The overall growth of the smartphone market was not only driven by the success of premium flagship devices from Samsung, Apple and others but more importantly by the abundance of affordable handsets that continue to drive shipments in many key markets,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC’s mobile phone team. “As feature phone shipments continue to decrease, vendors will continue to attack both emerging and developed markets with competitive smartphones that are both rich in features and low in price.”
But, of course, the main focus with every smartphone report centers on one question: Who is leading: Samsung or Apple? But they aren’t the only players in the smartphone game.
“While much of the attention is being paid to Apple and Samsung in the top tier, the smartphone market in fact continues to diversify as more entrants hit this increasingly competitive market,” said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC’s mobile phone team. “While the Chinese players are clearly making gains this quarter, every quarter sees new brands joining the market. IDC now tracks over 200 different smartphone brands globally, many of them focused on entry-level and mid-range models, and most with a regional or even single-country focus.”
So how did the two top smartphone suppliers shape out for the quarter? Samsung is still shipping out the most units, totaling 73.2 million for the quarter, but it still struggled with some of its units.
According to the report: “Samsung remained the leader in the worldwide smartphone market but was the only company among the top five to see its shipment volume decline year over year. The new Galaxy S6 and S6 edge arrived with mixed results as a limited supply of the edge models did not keep pace with the demand for the new curved handset. Older Galaxy models, however, sold briskly thanks to deep discounts and promotions throughout the quarter. All eyes will now be on the early release of the pending Note 5 and rumored S6 edge plus to come this August.”
As for Apple, the company sold 47.5 million iPhones in the quarter, which was its biggest fiscal third quarter ever, and it continued to see very strong growth in China.
According to IDC’s report: “The larger screened iPhones along with the rapid expansion of 4G networks in China continued to drive momentum for Apple in Asia/Pacific. As smartphone saturation continues to climb in many new developed markets like China, Apple will look to drive upgrades with refreshed ‘S’ models in the following quarter.”
As for the rest of the figures on the smartphone market shipments, here’s how the figures break down:
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