Smartphone sales worldwide would decline by 2.5 percent in 2019, which would be the worst decline ever, a new report by Gartner said on Thursday.
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Global shipments of devices – PCs, tablets and mobile phones – will total 2.2 billion units in 2019, a decline of 3.3 percent year-over-year (YoY). The mobile phone market is set to record the worst performance of these device types, declining by 3.8 percent. “The current mobile phone market of 1.7 billion shipments is around 10 percent below the 1.9 billion shipments reached in 2015,” Ranjit Atwal, Research Director at Gartner, said in an Interview.
“If mobile phones don’t provide significant new utility, efficiency or experiences, users won’t upgrade them, and will consequently increase these devices’ life spans.” The trend for lengthening mobile phone life span began in 2018 and will continue through 2019.
The market research firm predicts that high-end phone life span would increase from 2.6 years to nearly 2.9 years through 2023.
By 2020, seven percent of global communications service providers will have a commercially viable wireless 5G service. This will mark significant progress from 5G proofs of concept and commercial network construction work in 2018.
“In 2020, 5G-capable phones will represent six percent of total sales of phones. As 5G service coverage increases, user experience will improve and prices will decrease. The leap will occur in 2023 when we expect 5G phones to account for 51 percent of phone sales,” said Atwal.
While worldwide PC shipments totalled 63 million units and grew 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2019, there is still uncertainty for PC demand in 2019.
“The ongoing trade dispute between the US and China – and potential imposition of tariffs – are likely to impact the PC market this year,” Atwal said.
Samsung and Apple Recorded Year-Over-Year Declines:
Despite a decline in its smartphone sales of 8.8% in the first quarter of 2019, Samsung remained the No. 1 smartphone vendor worldwide. “Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone portfolio, which received a good response. However, its impact was limited as Samsung only started shipping the S10 at the end of the first quarter,” said Mr. Gupta. “Samsung also strengthened its midtier and entry-tier smartphone ranges with a refreshed A series and J series and the newly introduced M series, but aggressive competition from Chinese manufacturers limited their impact.”
Sales of Apple iPhones totaled 44.6 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a decline of 17.6% year over year. “The price cut for iPhones across markets helped drive up demand but wasn’t enough to restore growth in the first quarter,” said Mr. Gupta. “Apple is facing longer replacement cycles as users struggle to see enough value benefits to justify replacing existing iPhones.”
Conclusion: Vivo beat Xiaomi to claim the No. 5 spot in the first quarter of 2019. Vivo sold 27.4 million smartphones during the quarter. Xiaomi sold 27.2 million.
The latest features, such as in-display fingerprint scanner, slider camera, fast charging and almost bezel-less display, helped Vivo achieve double-digit smartphone sales growth in the first quarter of 2019. “However, the company could do much better by expanding its range of its entry-tier smartphones and selling them in emerging Asia/Pacific markets,” said Mr. Gupta.
