Global smartphone shipment totals edged upward in the second quarter even as tablet shipments continued to decline, according to new reports from Strategy Analytics and TrendForce
Strategy Analytics said smartphone shipments crept up by 1 percent annually to reach 340.4 million units in the second quarter, up from 338 million units in the same period a year ago. Outlook for the second half of the year is brighter, the research firm said, with multiple flagship launches planned from Samsung, Apple and other major players.
In the second quarter, Samsung led the competition shipping 77.6 million smartphones and cornering 23 percent of the global smartphone share. The company’s shipment figures were up 8 percent year over year from 71.9 million units in the second quarter 2015, Strategy Analytics said.
Apple shipments fell 15 percent year over year to just 40.4 million smartphones, causing its market share to undergo a corresponding drop from 14 percent to 12 percent in the second quarter. Huawei held on in third place with 32 million smartphone shipments and 9 percent of the market share.
The breakout star of the quarter was Chinese smartphone brand OPPO, which grew 137 percent year over year to ship 18 million smartphones and 5 percent of the global market share.
But while smartphones managed to eek out growth, tablet shipments fell almost 5 percent sequentially and nearly 9 percent year over year to just 33.54 million units.
“Tablet shipments continued to fall in the second quarter because there were few product launches that could boost sales and promotional activities were slacking in general,” TrendForce notebook analyst Anita Wang said. “Many established brands including Apple and Samsung have scaled back the resources for their tablet lines as demand remains weak. Furthermore, margins of tablets are being squeezed because the market demand has shifted to products with bargain prices.”
Apple snagged the number one position for the quarter with 9.95 million units shopped, though that figure represented a drop of nearly 3 percent sequentially and 9 percent year over year. Samsung shipments likewise declined, falling 7.3 percent sequentially and almost 24 percent annually to just 6 million units.
Both Lenovo and Huawei managed to battle tablet headwinds during the quarter to achieve growth, increasing shipments 9.1 percent and 10 percent sequentially to 2.4 million and 2.2 million units. Amazon’s shipments were flat sequentially but up a whopping 357 percent year over year at 2.2 million units. TrendForce said Amazon’s tablet shipments for the full year may hit a total of 10 million units depending on how the company fares over the holiday season.
It seems the next quarter will be another hard one for tablets.
Wang said TrendForce predicts the tablet market may see its first-ever quarterly decline in third-quarter shipments.