Worldwide smartphone sales clocked 336 million units by registering a 19.3 per cent an increase of during the first quarter of 2015, according to latest numbers from Gartner.
The growth was led by strong smartphone sales in emerging markets (excluding China), said the report. The fastest growing regions were Asia/Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. Due to these high-performing regions, the emerging markets achieved a 40 percent increase in sales during the first quarter of 2015. According to the research firm, over 281.6 million units of smartphones were shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2014
“During this quarter, local brands and Chinese vendors came out as the key winners in emerging markets,” “These vendors recorded an average growth of 73 percent in smartphone sales and saw their combined share go up from 38 percent to 47 percent during the first quarter of 2015.”
said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.
Giving insight about top five global smartphone vendors, Samsung continued to see a nose dip in sales and share during the Q1, 2015 with 21.3 percent share, followed by Apple with 13.1 percent and Microsoft with 7.2 percent). LG and Lenovo came fourth and fifth with 4.3 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.
Android maintained top spot as leading smartphone operating system (OS) with 78.9 percent of market share however its share fell by 1.9 percentage points, while iOS grew year-on-year for the third consecutive quarter. iOS came in second with 17.9% of market share followed by Windows struggled at number three with 2.5 percent.
“Strong iPhone sales in China during the first quarter of 2015 had an impact on Android’s performance in that country. Android’s volumes fell by 4 percent year-on-year in China for the first time,” “The performance of Windows Phone remained flat, mainly due to a weak ecosystem and a less desirable mobile brand, together with a strong and established competitive smartphone market. The upcoming Windows 10 will create a consistent user experience across all devices, but it remains to be seen whether developers will follow.”
said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.
Gartner concluded saying that OSs will need to find a way to distinguish themselves from one another owing to rapid increase in features and core capabilities. They need to extend their OS ecosystem’s reach by adding new functionalities, and build platforms that can span multiple devices types.