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Samsung gets its mojo back and Huawei defies the odds in Q2 2019 smartphone market reports

by Adrian Diaconescu / Jul 31, 2019, 8:27 AM

Samsung gets its mojo back and Huawei defies the odds in Q2 2019 smartphone market reports

Strategy Analytics, Counterpoint Research, and Canalys have all released their latest global smartphone market reports, and although the three totals differ slightly, the overarching trend is the same. Shipments are down for the seventh consecutive quarter, and it remains unclear when or if the mobile industry will be able to bounce back to a healthy growth pace.

While 5G adoption is widely expected to boost demand for high-end devices... eventually, Huawei's uncertain situation and Apple's inability to crack two key value-focused markets are likely to hold the industry back in the short run. Then again, Samsung's mid-range product lineup overhaul seems to have come at an opportune time, helping the market leader take advantage of the political tensions that essentially blocked Huawei's path to the number one spot in the global vendor ranks.

All in all, the year's second calendar quarter saw between 331.8 and 360 million smartphones shipped worldwide, down from a Q2 2018 count that ranged from 339.7 to 364.3 million units. That marks a year-on-year decline of between 1.2 and 2.6 percent, which is obviously not ideal but actually represents an improvement from drops reported over the last year or so. Otherwise put, the global market is slowly stabilizing, and at least according to Strategy Analytics, the "outlook for the second half of this year is improving."

No changes in the top five vendors

It's definitely not shocking to see Samsung, Huawei, and Apple ranked in the exact same order as the previous couple of quarters, but while there's no stopping the recent free fall of iPhone sales, the two largest handset manufacturers have both been able to boost their Q2 figures. In first place, Samsung gained 6 or 7 percent compared to 2018, jumping to more than 76 million unit shipments and a market share of between 21 and 23 percent, with Huawei up as much as 8 percent to almost 59 million sales and a 17 percent or so slice of the pie.

It's perhaps needless to point out once again that Huawei managed to defy all odds and bleak predictions thanks largely to its strong domestic performance, but Counterpoint Research warns the "real effect" of the US sanctions will be reflected in the company's Q3 results. Hence, you can expect Samsung to grow even further, supported by a wider than ever flagship portfolio and a revised Galaxy A family that's already proving a smash hit.

Meanwhile, Apple was by far the worst performer among the big five players, declining from around 12 to a little over 10 percent share, and although iPhone "sales trends" are improving, you shouldn't expect a spectacular reversal of fortunes anytime soon. In fourth and fifth place, Xiaomi and Oppo more or less remained in the same position as last year, facing intensifying domestic competition and/or international slowdowns.

A top ten newcomer and another big drop for an industry veteran

While companies like Sony, OnePlus, or Google are nowhere to be found in Counterpoint's top ten list for Q2 2019, Realme incredibly managed to sell 4.7 million smartphones this quarter with virtually no Western presence. The 2018-founded brand is owned by Chinese tech giant BBK, along with Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus, which technically makes this wildly successful group the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer, well ahead of Huawei.

Analyzed individually, Realme was narrowly surpassed by exclusive Nokia brand licensee HMD, while LG sat in eight place after falling no less than 18.5 percent from 9.8 to 8 million units, enough for a modest 2.2 percent market share. In seventh place, Lenovo continues to ride Motorola's US rebound, growing from 9 to 9.5 million global sales, with Vivo looking like the same thorn in sister brand Oppo's side as always, at 27 million unit shipments, or just 2 mil behind the world's fifth largest player.

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23 Comments

1. Hollowmost

Posts: 425; Member since: Oct 10, 2017

Samsung is still the undisputed king. not surprising when 80% of their smartphone components are homemade.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 8:39 AM 12

3. Papa_Ji

Posts: 879; Member since: Jun 27, 2016

Samsung is only company that can make a full smartphone by its own homemade parts. That's why SAMSUNG IS THE KING OF SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 8:56 AM 7

9. User123456789

Posts: 1176; Member since: Feb 22, 2019

Does samsung also make the glass, the metal frame, the fingerprint scanner, the components used for waterproofing, the screws, the glue used to seal the glass , the OIS, the lenses, the heat pipes ? Dont forget that the Snapdragon version uses Exmor for main cam.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:47 AM 1

19. shm224

Posts: 303; Member since: Mar 19, 2015

Samsung used to make the glass, but IIRC sold it to Dow and is a major share holder. Little things like screws, glues, etc are made by contractors.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 2:57 PM 0

23. oldskool50 unregistered

https://www.quora.com/Who-manufactures-the-Samsung-Galaxy-glass-screens The screens or the glass? The screen (Display): The screens are mostly produced by Samsung Display, a sister company (and former division of Samsung Electronics). To be precise, 100% of their AMOLED Displays are produced by Samsung Display, for LCD panels Samsung uses multiple suppliers. The glass: The display glass is supplied by Corning Inc., the company behind the “Gorilla Glass” brand. Samsung and Corning previously had a joint venture called “Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co.” which secured Samsung the supply of glass for their Display panels and Corning the return of investment. Samsung and Corning have a partnership. Samsung last I saw, has a 5% stake in Corning. So technically yes, Samsung makes their own glass for their phones. Just liek they make their own displays. Even though Samsung does buy the SnapDragon, they make their own Exynos as a ARM licensee, just like Apple. Samsung has always made their own caes for their phones. Come one due. Samsung has their own factories. And the fcat is, liek he said, Samsung is the ONLY OEm who has the capability to make all the parts for their phone. Samsung makes their own SoC, modem, ram, flash storage, displays, batteries, jacks, cameras and more. Just stop it! You don't make OIS, it's designed in the hardware and since Samsung makes its own cameras, then that means yes they make their own OIS too. Since they make their own cameras sensors too, asking about the camera lens is totally stupid. Heat pipes. Really? Who you thinks make them?

posted on Aug 01, 2019, 11:19 AM 0

4. User123456789

Posts: 1176; Member since: Feb 22, 2019

I doubt 80.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 8:57 AM 0

20. shm224

Posts: 303; Member since: Mar 19, 2015

The key components, AP, memory, storage, battery, display, do make up the majority of any smartphones and are all made by Samsung.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 2:58 PM 0

10. Techno4

Posts: 16; Member since: Jul 31, 2019

That's how the author decided to write the article but samsungs overall profit dropped by 56% their flagship line is suffering. Yes their midrange and display segments picked up the slack but it's not good when year on year your profit margin is declining, I guess over pricing phones while taking away features isn't working out so well plus phones from 2-3 years ago are still more than capable so no need for the latest every year. If you like you can check the drop in profits on gsmarena.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:57 AM 1

25. Youngquenga41

Posts: 82; Member since: Apr 03, 2017

Na fool. Their flagship line this year is doing rather great. The s10, s10e and s10 plus is widely popular and is selling better than what was anticipated. Aslo the note10 is coming to round out the rest of the year. Samsung is doing rather well interms of flagship sales bra. You should do some more research before coming here spewing your garbage.

posted on Aug 02, 2019, 8:49 AM 0

11. raky_b

Posts: 420; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Thanks to Trump and no one else.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 10:21 AM 0

14. OneLove123

Posts: 1262; Member since: Aug 28, 2018

Their A series is really helping them out. I am using their a20 which I got free from metro. This phone is quick and has a beautiful screen even at 720p.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 12:06 PM 1

2. Papa_Ji

Posts: 879; Member since: Jun 27, 2016

So apple is only looser in top 5 vendors. All of them have managed to increase there market share. Also, the biggest looser in top 10. If it cont. then by early 2020 apple will be out of top 5.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 8:50 AM 1

6. User123456789

Posts: 1176; Member since: Feb 22, 2019

How about money earned with phones/tablets? Probably Apple still earns more than Samsung, Huawei , Xiaomi and BBK combined. If they cared about marketshare they would have made an iphone "Xc" with plastic body, HD screen, single cam, 64Gb/2Gb , no IP rating , no stereo audio and no OIS to sell for $480 This kind of device would easily sell 70 million units. Because tons of people just want an iphone, no matter if it's lower tier. But how many of them would Apple need to sell to make same amount of money they make with Xs? Any company has to sell a lot of midranges to earn same profits earned by selling one flagship.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:06 AM 2

12. raky_b

Posts: 420; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Thay make tons of money on they faithful sheepskin and that won't be changed soon, but if they continue to lose market share, they will soon feel slowing down of profits of Services division, and they are betting heavy on that.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 10:25 AM 0

13. mootu

Posts: 1541; Member since: Mar 16, 2017

Things are starting to slowly turn against them. They lost highest valuation to Microsoft. iPhones sales are dropping every quarter. Alphabet has today overtaken them as richest in available cash, Apple has $104 billion in available cash and Alphabet has $117 billion.https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/alphabet-google-parent-now-has-more-cash-than-apple-2019-7-1028404234

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 11:30 AM 1

16. User123456789

Posts: 1176; Member since: Feb 22, 2019

Less sales = more expensive new phones Balance kept.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 1:46 PM 0

24. oldskool50 unregistered

Why do you care that Appel may earn more money than Samsung? Are you being paid? They ALL make more money then you and all the people on this planet combined. As rich as Bill gates is, he still has less money than Samsung or many other corporations, including Microsoft. Smasung is always gonna have less profit than Apple because Samsung has a totally different business model. Any company that makes stuff is gonna spend fora and away more money. Samsung has 3 times the employees of Apple, they have factories, they have higher distribution costs because Samsung has to ship more products to far and away more countries than Apple. In fact I would say, Samsung probably makes far and away more money than Apple, but they have to spend more of it, leading to less profit. Apple would go out of business if it had the expenses Samsung has. Samsung spends alone 3+ times more money just on R&D ve Apple or anyone else. You just reaching for straws dude. Samsung is unmatched. Profits aren't even worth talking about. So what Appel makes more moeny than lots of companies. When you charge 5 times what it costs you to sell something, that you make for cheap, with cheap materials, cheap labor and bureaucratic BS, then you can expect differences.

posted on Aug 01, 2019, 11:34 AM 1

5. sissy246

Posts: 7129; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

Waiting patiently for the King of them all, note 10+

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:06 AM 3

7. iloveapps

Posts: 909; Member since: Mar 21, 2019

Quarterly report of every OEM is much better than any analysts, analytics, research and the like.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:39 AM 0

8. Tipus

Posts: 906; Member since: Sep 30, 2016

I know, samsung is doomed! :)))

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 9:46 AM 1

15. ryq24

Posts: 876; Member since: Oct 17, 2011

Realme in the top ten is the major surprise. Might even catch up to LG and Nokia in the next quarter.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 12:28 PM 0

17. User123456789

Posts: 1176; Member since: Feb 22, 2019

To make top 10, a brand only needs to sell 8 million units per year.

posted on Jul 31, 2019, 1:47 PM 0

22. oldskool50 unregistered

@iLoveapps - Where you at? Apple saw a 12% drop year over year, while Samsung gained 7% year over year. Samsung still averaging 70M+ phones per quarter, while Apple is barely at 50% that. Haha. At the end of Apple Q4, which ends in September, Apple will have sold less than 190M phones and next year its gonna drop with lose sales of at least 15-25M again. This means in 2021, when the 12 comes out, Apple will be selling less than 150M phones. Samsung's hurting a bit too, dropping from the usual 80M average sells per quarter. But 76M is still pretty high considering how much competition they have. Apple has zero competition on IOS. This market is very volatile right now. Everyone is simply grabbing scraps. Samsung and Huawei have the lions share.