The latest report from TrendForce shows that despite seasonal slow sales overall, Samsung was the one bright spot by showing a growth during the first quarter of 2017 earning a 26.1-percent market share, while Apple came in second place with 16.9-percent share of the market. During that period, sales of Global smartphones were set at 307 million, but that figure was down 23-percent from the fourth quarter ending in December 2016. This trend is not surprising considering sales during the holiday seasons are generally high, with a drop off at the beginning of the year as consumers wait for the new models to hit the stores. While Samsung had no Galaxy Note 7 to help carry it through the first quarter, it did have a strong midrange presence in their Galaxy J series smartphones that sustained a growth during the first quarter. To sum up the first quarter – LG just started shipping its new LG G6 series device and the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are taking pre-orders. Once these two highly anticipated smartphones are selling in full-force we should see some nice second quarter figures in both total smartphone sales and the earnings of both companies.
TrendForce is convinced that many consumers are waiting for the 10th Anniversary iPhone 8 this fall and that is why their sales are starting to slow down. Apple’s first quarter sales were down 36-percent from the fourth quarter in 2106 and down 41-percent from a year ago during this same period. Their first quarter release of their “PRODUCT Red” edition helped boost their first quarter sales, but overall it was down quite a bit. LG was somewhat of a surprise with its sales figures down almost 40-percent compared to the fourth quarter, and this is after the released the new LG V20 during the second half of 2016 to help carry it over until the new LG G6 was released. Even with the LG G6‘s release, TrendForce does not see LG’s sales figures toppling what it did last year, estimating 18 million units sold.
Even the Chinese brands all had declines in sales as their total product fell 26-percent from the fourth quarter. Huawei is still the leader in China by a larger margin over OPPO and Vivo, while Xiaomi showed no growth during the first quarter they did show a year-on-year growth of 12-percent. Lenovo – Motorola’s parent company – fell almost 30-percent from the fourth to first quarter, but had no new products to offer. TrendForce see all Chinese companies picking up once they begin to release new flagship devices.