Smartphone Sales Grew 4.3 Percent Globally in Q2 2016: Gartner

Sale of smartphones to end-users totalled 344 million units globally in the second quarter of 2016 – a 4.3 percent increase over the same period in 2015, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Overall, only five smartphone vendors from the top 10 showed growth. These were four Chinese manufacturers – Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and BBK Communication Equipment – and South Korean giantSamsung.

Interestingly, BBK owns Oppo Vivo smartphone brand.

In the second quarter of 2016, Samsung had nearly 10 percent more market share than Apple which continued its downward trend with a decline of 7.7 percent.

Apple sales declined in North America as well as in Western Europe. However, it witnessed its worst sales decline in China and Asia-Pacific regions where sales declined 26 percent.

“Demand for premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers wait for new hardware launches in the second half of the year,” said Anshul Gupta, Research Director at Gartner, in a statement.

Among the top five smartphone vendors, Oppo exhibited the highest growth in the second quarter of 2016 at 129 percent.

In addition, the decline in sales of feature phones by 14 percent bolstered the decline in overall sales of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2016.

All mature markets except Japan saw slowing demand for smartphones leading to a decline in sales of 4.9 percent.

In contrast, all emerging regions except Latin America saw growth which led to smartphone sales growing by 9.9 percent, Gartner said.