Strategy Analytics has just put out some figures for Q1 2016, showing us how many smartphones each of the top five manufacturers shipped in the first quarter, in relative to the first quarter of 2015. Now remember that these are shipped models, not those that were sold in the quarter. What’s interesting to see here is that globally, shipments decreased by roughly 10 million. Going from 345 million in Q1 2015, to about 334.6 million in Q1 2016.
Looking at the chart below, you’ll see something a bit surprising. Samsung actually shipped 3.7 million less in Q1 2016 compared to the year prior. Now this is surprising, because the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge launched in Q1 2016. While the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge launched in Q2 of 2015. Apple also shipped about 10 million less in Q1 compared to the year prior. Which opened up space for Chinese manufacturers Huawei and OPPO to gain some ground. Huawei shipped 28.3 million in Q1 2016 versus 17.3 million in Q1 2015. While OPPO pretty much doubled their shipments from 8.3 million last year to 15.5 million this year. Xiaomi, who is sitting in fifth place for smartphone shipments, actually shipped about .3 million less compared to last year.
Market share didn’t change a whole lot. Samsung is still sitting at the top with 23.6% followed by Apple at 15.3%. Huawei has 8.5%, OPPO at 4.6% and Xiaomi at 4.4% as of Q1 2016. Everyone else accounts for the 43.6% in “Others”. So while Samsung and Apple have lost a bit of market share, the Chinese manufacturers have gobbled up their losses. Huawei is likely seeing such a big increase due to the Nexus 6P they built with Google, as well as the success of the Honor 5X which was announced at CES in January. What’s interesting about Xiaomi is that while they shipped less smartphones in the quarter, they did increase their market share. Albeit by very little. Going from 4.3% to 4.4%.
Pretty interesting to see how the market share changes from quarter to quarter. OPPO leap frogged Xiaomi in the first quarter of this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the numbers change in Q2 2016, especially with more flagships being available, like the Huawei P9, HTC 10 and LG G5.