According to a report released by global market research firm TrendForce on Monday, global smartphone makers made 292 million shipments in Q1 2016. Sales from Chinese brands surpassed those of Apple and Samsung combined for the first time.
According to the release, 292 million global shipments is a 1.3% YoY decline, and a decrease of 18.6% from Q4 2015. The main reason is that the global smartphone market is already saturated.
Apple was partly responsible for the global decrease. The release said the company sold 42 million iPhones in Q1 2016, while 75 million were sold in Q4 2015.
“The iPhone SE is going to face severe competition from Chinese brands in the mid-range smartphone market. This year’s iPhone SE shipments are projected to come in below 15 million units” said TrendForce smartphone analyst Avril Wu in the release.
In comparison, the release said Samsung’s shipments reached 81 million in Q1 2016, a 2.5 QOQ increase. TrendForce predicts that Samsung will make 316 million shipments in 2016.
According to Wu, the Chinese brands shipped 125 million products in Q1 2016, surpassing 123 million shipments from Apple and Samsung combined for the first time, and accounting for 42.9% of the global smartphone shipment.
The release said China’s largest smartphone maker Huawei made 27 million shipments in Q1 2016, a 20% QOQ decline. Q1 shipments from other leading Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Lenovo were 16 million and 17 million, respectively.
“Huawei won’t be able to overtake Apple to become the No. 2 smartphone brand worldwide any time soon,” said Wu in the release. “Still, the market share gap between Huawei and Apple are expected to narrow with each passing year.”
