Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 373.1 million smartphones worldwide, up 2.7% year over year, and up 7.4% from the second quarter, in the third quarter of 2017 (3Q17), as per the latest International Data Corporation (IDC). “Despite the annual growth being low, the fact that it is positive leading into the holiday quarter is a sign the industry still has momentum,” said IDC.
Top 5 ranking did not change from the second quarter, and all of the top 5 vendors experienced positive year-over-year growth, with Xiaomi growing the strongest by more than doubling its sales from this quarter a year ago.
Xiaomi had the strongest year-over-year growth which has more than doubled its shipments from 13.6 million in 3Q16 to 27.6 million in 3Q17. This growth is due to success in the India market, heavily supported by mega online festival sales during the month of September.
Samsung and Apple topped the market with a market share of 22.3% and 12.5%. The South Korean smartphone maker shipped 83.3 million units while Apple shipped 46.7 million iPhones in the second quarter, up 9.5% and 2.6%, respectively. Huawei, OPPO, and Xiaomi had a market share of 10.5%, 8.2% and 7.4% respectively.
IDC report also said that Asia/Pacific, excluding China and Japan, performed the best by far, where the market grew double digits, likely as a result of the continued slowdown in the China domestic market, which was close to flat year-over-year in 3Q17.