IDC’s latest smartphone market figures show the iPhone’s share of the market has dropped to 15.3% in the March quarter. This comes in the face of an overall flat market for smartphones in the first quarter of 2016.
Apple yesterday reported iPhone sales of 51.2 million during the three-month period ending March 26, compared to 61.2 million units and 18.3 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, overall smartphone shipments totaled 334.9 million during the quarter, a year-over-year increase of only 500,000 units.
Samsung continues to sit atop the smartphone world, with 24.5% of the market, down slightly form 24.6% a year ago. The company shipped 81.9 million smartphones in the first quarter. Huawei, and lesser-known Chinese brands: OPPO and Vivo rounded out the top five.
“Along China’s maturing smartphone adoption curve, the companies most aligned with growth are those with products serving increasingly sophisticated consumers. Lenovo benefited with ASPs below US$150 in 2013, and Xiaomi picked up the mantle with ASPs below US$200 in 2014 and 2015. Now Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, which play mainly in the sub-US$250 range, are positioned for a strong 2016,” said Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “These new vendors would be well-advised not to rest on their laurels though, as this dynamic smartphone landscape has shown to even cult brands like Xiaomi that customer loyalty is difficult to consistently maintain.”
IDC points to users perhaps not feeling the iPhone 6s/6s Plus not being enough of an upgrade over the previous model of the device. However, the report does offer hope that Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone SE might bring in users from the Android side of the fence, who had previously viewed Apple’s offerings as too expensive.
Apple also announced the new iPhone SE, which looks to challenge similarly priced Android options in numerous emerging markets where Apple has traditionally been seen as too expensive. The SE features all the power of the 6S in a compact form factor that looks to equally target those who desire smaller phones as well. However, at US$399, the SE still faces equally powerful lower-priced devices from competitors, particularly within India and China. As Apple CEO Cook mentioned on the company’s earnings call, the SE will begin having an impact on iPhone shipments in the second quarter of 2016.
