Mobile analyst firm Juniper Research estimates that the number of smartphone shipments reached over 290 million in Q2 2014, representing 26% y-o-y growth and 2% q-o-q growth. However, it was a slight decline for Apple and Samsung, losing out some market share to Huawei, Lenovo and LG.
Samsung
The Korean firm accounted for 26% of all smartphone shipments globally, with an estimated 75 million shipments during the quarter. While the company’s market share declined y-o-y and q-o-q, shipment volumes were estimated to be up 4% when compared to Q2 2013. The company does not disclose shipment numbers.
Apple
This fruity American posted its best ever second quarter, shipping over 35 million iPhones, representing a y-o-y growth of 13%. However, Apple’s market share slipped from 15% in Q1 2014 to 12% in Q2 2014. A significant proportion of iPhone sales came from emerging markets, recording 55% y-o-y growth in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
Huawei
Chinese giants Huawei sold some 34.3 million smartphones in H1 2014, with the second quarter shipments reaching 20 million representing a market share of nearly 7%. The company is expected to meet its full-year target of 80 million smartphones.
Lenovo
Lenovo is estimated to have shipped 15.6 million smartphones for the second quarter, representing an increased market share of 5.5%.
LG
LG meanwhile shipped a record 14.5 million smartphones in the second quarter, representing a 20% y-o-y growth and 5% market share.
Emerging Markets
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The growth in economies of scale, innovation and the ‘trickle-down’ effect of technology opened up the market to a far wider variety of low-end, lower-priced smartphones which, in turn, facilitated their entry into emerging. Juniper anticipates that emerging nations in Far East & China, India, Latin America and Africa & Middle East will account for over 50% of the global smartphones shipped this year.
With the largest mobile market in the world, China had a penetration level of 89% in 2012, with 82% of that figure made up of smartphones in 2013. Quartz cited analysts who reckon that penetration will reach 90% in 2014.
However, homegrown Chinese brands, firms like ZTE and Huawei, will have to start looking further afield for market growth, especially as Western firms such as Apple and Asian competitors such as Samsung and LG dominate the list of best-selling phones in China.
Xiaomi, another Chinese phone manufacturer, actually outsold Samsung and Apple in China over Christmas 2013, most likely due to the saturation of the market already. This year it is expanding to 10 other countries with its ultra-budget phones. These countries include Russia, India, Turkey, and Mexico, and closer to home Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, and may turn the firm into not just a domestic success, but an international one too.
