San Diego, Buenos Aires, London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul

July 12, 2019

The US market shows 5G smartphone sales in over 10 cities in May despite Verizon only launching 5G services in Chicago and Minneapolis, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s US Smartphone Sales by City Tracker. While Chicago did show the highest concentration of sales, it represented only 5% of total 5G smartphone sales according to data collected across millions of sales data points during May.

Speaking about the initial 5G expansion in the US, Tom Kang, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said, “Verizon started the nation’s first 5G service and also the world’s first 5G service with millimeter wave. In April, the service was launched in just two cities, Chicago and Minneapolis. Verizon continues to add cities slowly. Denver joined on June 27th and Rhode Island on July 1st.”

Kang continued, “The top 10 cities make up just one-third of all 5G smartphone sales in May. This indicates how widespread initial 5G smartphone sales have been, despite early predictions that sales will concentrate in cities with 5G service. Consumers are buying 5G capable devices across the country despite not having a 5G network available in most cases. Minneapolis, one of the two launch cities is not even in the top 10 list. Instead, we see cities like Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles in the top five cities list for 5G smartphone sales.”

Maurice Klaehne, Research Analyst, further commented, “In our newest US consumer survey, we see that many consumers are forward-looking when it comes to 5G smartphone purchases. Over 85% of consumers have some awareness of 5G and are planning their next smartphone purchase with 5G network capabilities in mind. In other words, consumers are futureproofing themselves with the purchase of a 5G device.”

Klaehne added, “In our 5G Korea report, we showcased how Korean consumers began purchasing 5G devices as they took advantage of aggressive promotion strategies and data plans that aligned with consumer needs despite the current network shortcomings. Korea now has all major carriers promoting 5G, and all major brands have a flagship 5G device.”

Counterpoint Research predicts that 5G smartphone sales will see a significant increase in the US once all carriers and smartphone brands are ready with their offerings. Our forecast for the US market for 5G smartphones is more than five million units in 2019.

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high-tech industry.

Analyst Contacts:

Tom Kang

Maurice Klaehne

Follow Counterpoint Research
press(at)counterpointresearch.com

The post US 5G Smartphone Sales Extend Cross-Country in the First Month of Sales appeared first on Counterpoint.

The escalating trade conflict between the US and China is not anywhere near any resolution. Of particular interest to the US are issues like a ban on hyper subsidies, an easing of local Chinese ownership rules, and forceful intellectual property/knowledge transfer in return for foreign companies gaining access to the Chinese market. The timing of the action on Huawei is likely not coincidental – it can be used as a lever to increase the pressure on the Chinese negotiating team as well as damage the company itself. We see a struggle for leadership in technology and global power at the core of this action.

The major damage to Huawei will be coming from the following four things in order of impact:

• ARM ceasing to cooperate: All of Huawei’s smartphones run on ARM architecture. The current chipsets already designed may not be affected, but the newer chipsets for late Q4 2019 will not be able to use ARM’s license. This will affect even smartphone sales in China.
• Restriction of Google Android software and services: Huawei will not be able to use Google’s GMS, the core suite of software Google provides. Huawei will have to use the open source AOSP instead. Huawei will lose access to Play Store and key Google apps like YouTube and Gmail. Users will have to sideload or look for alternative app stores. This is ok for China where GMS is in any case banned. The impact on emerging markets will vary. However, Europe, Japan, and Latin America will be heavily affected.
• RF components: Qorvo, Skyworks, and Broadcom RF components will be hard to replace for Huawei’s high-end LTE smartphones.
• Intel server chips: Again, Huawei relies on Intel for the cloud, enterprise and infrastructure servers.

With such a wide-ranging impact of the trade ban, how do we measure the damage and understand what will be the outcome? We do this by taking into account Huawei’s business in various aspects.

One will have to see the extent of exposure of Huawei’s business to overseas markets, the dependency of Huawei on US chipsets, and the price bands in which products are positioned.

The following charts will give you an initial idea.

First, we can see 49% of Huawei’s business comes from China, and 51% from overseas markets. Within the overseas markets, Europe accounts for 23%, and will probably be the most affected. HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei, mostly makes the AP or SoC chipsets. Therefore, in the near term, a lack of AP components would not affect Huawei. But if ARM ceases to cooperate, there may be no future chipset designs.

Does this matter? The latest and best chipsets are important for flagship models. Therefore, we need to take a look at Huawei’s exposure in the mid-end and premium tier to understand the impact better.

As we can see, the most significant price band for Huawei is still the US$100-US$199 price band. This is the wholesale price, which means the retail price would be somewhere between US$130-US$270. This is mainly the price band where HONOR branded products operate.

The critical price bands would be the ones above US$400. These price bands make up for 18% of Huawei’s smartphone shipments. However, these are the most profitable price bands, and declining sales here will cripple Huawei’s marketing capability and R&D investment budgets for the future.

Will Huawei make a deal with the US, or will China make a deal with the US for the sake of Huawei? If so, by when? Until then, how much revenue will Huawei lose? Will there be a hole in the industry, or will the gap be filled by someone else? If so, by whom?

There can be many possibilities, and the above data points will help you measure the impact to some extent. We’ve made our own estimates. If you are interested, please download our new report on this topic. It is free for existing clients and all industry colleagues in the high tech industry.

(Registration required for first time users)

The post Analyzing the Impact of the US Trade Ban on Huawei’s Smartphone Business appeared first on Counterpoint.

Seoul, London, San Diego, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires – November 3, 2018

According to Counterpoint’s latest smartphone forecast report, smartphone growth will drop to a negative 1.3% in 2018. This is a first in the history of smartphones that the market has contracted year over year.

It was a tough year already as the market had been experiencing negative growth since the fourth quarter of 2017. This negative trend is expected to continue in the September quarter and upcoming December quarter. After years of growth the smartphone market has finally come to a halt. To be accurate the market had enjoyed a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 16% for the last five years between 2012 and 2017. This is close to growing 16% every year.

This is a mixture of multiple factors starting from the global economy slowing down and exchange rates in emerging markets fluctuating rapidly as in the case of Latin America (see here). The US – China tariff wars aren’t helping the situation either. Some markets are cooling down after years of overshooting caused by extreme competition. But at the core of the weak demand could be the change in consumer behavior.

Commenting on the weak market demand, Research Director, Tom Kang explained, “Many markets have already hit a saturation point for new smartphone demand and are dependent on replacement demand. However, since last year consumers have decided to trade up whenever they had the chance and are thus going for a better device, despite the price difference. This is evident in the introduction of Apple’s iPhone X last year. But buying a more expensive device results in extending the length of replacement cycles, especially when your earnings are limited.”

Longer replacement cycles have led to fewer smartphones consumed. However, it has a positive effect to manufacturers. Higher smartphone ASPs has led to more revenue; despite the negative growth in smartphone shipments, smartphone revenues are expected to show positive growth.

Tom Kang added, “Overall smartphone revenue may grow 9% compared to last year. This is even higher than the 7% revenue growth of 2017.”

The higher price points are justified by more capacity NAND flash storage, better processing power with AI functionality baked-in, more durable designs, and of course, more camera sensors for better picture quality.

Next year likely won’t be much different as the trend continues with the new Apple iPhone Xs Max introduced at a higher price point, Samsung’s foldable smartphone coming soon and 5G smartphones on the horizon. But again, smartphone ASPs will likely grow more steeply to offset the low volume growth.

The full forecast with the assumptions is available for subscribing clients to Counterpoint’s mobile device service. The methodology involves insights from consumer surveys, industry interviews and public IR documents. Feel free to reach out to us at press@counterpointresearch.com for further questions regarding our in-depth latest research, insights or press enquiries.

Analyst Contacts:

Tom Kang
+82 2 553 4813
tom@counterpointresearch.com

Peter Richardson
peter@counterpointresearch.com

Neil Shah
neil@counterpointresearch.com

 Follow Counterpoint Research
press(at)counterpointresearch.com

The post Smartphones to Show -1% Growth in 2018 appeared first on Counterpoint.

Seoul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, London and San Diego – March 7^th, 2018

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Refurbished Smartphone tracker, the global market for refurbished smartphones grew 13% y/y in 2017, reaching close to 140 million units. This was in contrast with the global new smartphone market that grew a scant 3% last year (see here), thus being outpaced by refurbished “second life” smartphones.

Refurbished smartphones are pre-owned smartphones that are collected, rejuvenated or repaired to be sold again in the market. Only 25% of all pre-owned phones are sold back into the market. Of these, only some are refurbished. The result is that there are many grades of refurbished devices that attract different price points depending on available quantity and demand for a specific model or variant (color, memory storage, etc.).

Commenting on this important trend, Research Director, Tom Kang, highlighted, “With 13% growth, refurbished smartphones are now close to 10% of the total global smartphone market. The low growth of the new smartphone market in 2017 can be partially attributed to the growth of the refurb market. The slowdown in innovation has made two-year-old flagship smartphones comparable in design and features with the most recent mid-range phones. Therefore, the mid low-end market for new smartphones is being cannibalized by refurbished high-end phones, mostly Apple iPhones and, to a lesser extent, Samsung Galaxy smartphones.”

Apple and Samsung’s dominance is more obvious in the refurb market than in the new smartphone market. The two brands combined hold close to three-fourths of the refurbished smartphone market, with Apple leading by a significant margin. In terms of revenue, the dominance grows further, as the two smartphone giants control more than 80% of the revenue in the refurbished smartphone market.

Commenting on the findings, Research Director, Peter Richardson, noted, “It’s a surprise to many that the fastest growing smartphone market in 2017 was not India or any other emerging market, but the refurb market. With refurb smartphones in play we think the market for new devices will slow further in 2018.”

Mr. Richardson, added, “Regions seeing the highest volume include the US and Europe. While the fastest growing markets for refurbs include Africa, SE Asia and India. All have been seeing initiatives from the major operators (e.g. Verizon, Vodafone etc.), OEMs (e.g. Apple) and major distributors (e.g. Brightstar) who are adding full life-cycle services. The industry uses data analysis to predict future resale values of devices, which means consumers can be given a guaranteed buy-back value at various points during their ownership. This helps consumers to manage the high cost of the latest flagship smartphones – or at least to obtain a useful contribution to partially offset the cost of their next phone.”

Mr. Richardson goes on to say, “This is a burgeoning market allowing various stakeholders to maximize the life-time value of a mobile device. For many in the industry, the profit margin on a used device exceeds that of a new device. It is also positive from the perspective of maximizing the use of valuable resources, so many players position refurb devices as ‘green’. While this is indeed true it also keys-in to current consumer sentiment in many markets. Overall, we expect this trend to continue gathering pace”

Please contact Counterpoint Research if you would like to subscribe to our deep dive on the refurb market or if you have any questions on this market.

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high-tech industry.

Analyst Contacts:

Tom Kang

tom@counterpointresearch.com

Peter Richardson

peter@counterpointresearch.com

The post The Surprising Growth of Used Smartphones appeared first on Counterpoint.

Some quick observations from this edition: 

• Global mobile handset shipments grew by 3% YoY
• Top five OEMs contributed to almost half of the global mobile handset market shipments
• Middle East & Africa was the fastest growing region, mobile handset shipments grew by 12% YoY
• One in three mobile handset shipped globally was from Chinese brands

Full reports are available for clients on our portal. Please feel free to reach out to us for press or this research-related questions at: info (at) counterpointresearch.com

This report should be read to conjunction with Market Monitor reports available on our Research portal (requires subscription). Follow us on Twitter @CounterPoint TR

The post INFOGRAPHIC: Q2-2017 | MOBILE MARKET MONITOR appeared first on Counterpoint.

Xiaomi has two models in the top 10 list, the Mi 3 and Redmi Note. The long time bestseller Redmi 1S is just outside the list as it has proved to be a hit in its newly entered markets such as India. With the Mi 4 slowly growing in volume it looks like Xiaomi has enough fuel to last till the year end of 2014.

Motorola’s Moto G has entered the top 10 list for the first time as it has been a bestseller in every major Emerging Market. It is close to the end of its life cycle. So it will be interesting to see if its successors will have similar popularity.

Just outside the top 10 is the LG G3 which has been the hero for LG helping it return to profitability in the third quarter of 2014. Huawei’s Honor 6 and P7 are also contenders as well as the Galaxy S5 mini.

(table source: Monthly Market Pulse September 2014)

^* Mobile Phone sales only (not shipments). Tablets, PCs, dongles, fixed wireless devices not included. All regional or minor hardware variations included in each model.

For more information and/or to purchase a copy of the report please send an email to:
info@counterpointresearch.com

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high tech industry.

The post Top 10 Smartphones sold Globally During Sep 2014 appeared first on Counterpoint.

This quarter it was all about the rise of local brands such as Xiaomi, Micromax cropping across parts of Asia, Europe and Latin America. These are becoming a big threat to incumbents such as Samsung, LG, Nokia and others as they chip away marketshare in smartphones and featurephones segment. Which are these brands? Why and How these brands have become successful? What does future hold for these brands and the competition?

Please feel free to reach out to us for press or this research related questions at analyst (at) counterpointresearch.com 

P.S. For the high quality PDF version please send an email request to info(at)counterpointresearch.com

The post Infographic: The Q2 Handset/Smartphone Market in One Page appeared first on Counterpoint.

The overall Q2 2014 market is weak and larger vendors seem to suffer more than the smaller weaker ones. Below are the key takeaways from our regular Market Pulse report of May 2014.

1. The Market: In May handset sell through improved only slightly. Demand is getting better. Europe and the Emerging Markets improved but China is still slow and continues to contract. Japan and Korea are also weak although better than April. Sell-in shipments also followed the rise in sell-through sales demand. Q2 2014 is likely to be better than expected; potentially almost equal to shipments in Q1 2014.
Inventory at the industry level remain at manageable levels in most countries. Smartphones are now 69% of the market.

2. Vendors: Most international brands did not see improvement in sales – especially Samsung. Samsung still leads in all price bands and regions but loses share everywhere, all price bands and most regions including China and USA. Apple gains in the US. Both Lenovo and Motorola enjoy growth. Mostly Emerging market local vendors (or local kings) take share from Samsung. See our report on Pakistan and Qmobile at www.counterpointdb.com. Apple’s sales rebounded in the US due to changes in operator plans and deals. Lenovo has gained share with new models and Motorola is showing good momentum since its Moto G launch.

APAC accounted for the majority of Samsung’s sales and China contributes the most among countries, followed by US and India. The newly launched Galaxy S5 was the best selling handset in May but the “not-quite-sexy-enough” premium Galaxy S5 which seems to have peaked at 5 million units a month. The mid-low tier smartphones are also suffering as there aren’t new models. LG’s G3 effect is not showing yet but we expect it to kick-in starting from late June. Xiaomi sales in China started to fall as the flagship models grow old.

Smartphone market share by each month 2014

3. Price-band analysis: The share of sales in the $400+ price bands (ASP or transfer prices) fell as the mix of local smartphone brands strengthened further. Emerging markets were also strong although China was weaker than expected. In May month 56% of global Android devices were under $200 a 1pp increase from April.

4. Hardware Features: Handset features have shifted more toward larger 5inch+ displays, which comprised 45% of all smartphones sold. In May, LTE could be found in 35% of the total smartphones sold. Samsung leads the LTE market with 38% share; followed by Apple with 29% of share; rest of the market was highly fragmented. LG left Sony behind and stood at 3rd position in May (last month it was 4th) but the Chinese are growing fast especially Huawei and Coolpad.

The post Snapshot of the smartphone market in May 2014 appeared first on Counterpoint.

According to Counterpoint’s channel survey across 35 countries, Apple’s iPhone 5s continues to be the bestselling phone in the world, a spot that many expected to be taken by Samsung’s Galaxy S 5. The highly anticipated Galaxy S5 comes in at second place but still a quite distant number two in terms of (sell through) unit sales. The iPhone 5c shipments continue to decline but Apple continued clearing excess inventory for the iPhone 5c during the month. apple iPhone 5c sales put it behing Samsung’s last year’s flagship Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note III.

Xiaomi continues to maintain its position in our top 10 bestsellers list with strong performance in domestic market. The MI3, Hongmi Red Rice and Redmi Note are now available in many overseas markets with Xiaomi’s expanding distribution to cotribute to global sales volumes. But within China, the two models (Mi3 and Redmi) are reaching peak and ‘me-too’ competitors are pushing out similar high-specced products at aggressive price-points. A product refresh beckons in coming months from one of the most talked about Chinese brand.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 mini stood at 8th and the Galaxy Grand 2 which was released last year captured the 10th spot. The Grand 2 is a more affordable phablet from Samsung with a display size of 5.25″. There are now 3 phablets in the top 10 list which reflects the ongoing trend of larger displays. almost 40% of the smartphones sold in May were phablets according to Counterpoint’s channel research across 35 countries. If Apple comes out with a phablet later this year it will instantly become a hit and top the list of phablets within two months of availability.

Outside of the top 10 list Sony’s Xperia Z1 came in close. Motorola’s Moto G along with Huawei’s Honor 3C and LG’s G2 made into the top 20 list. Next month we expect to see the Nokia X in the ranks of bestsellers as it is moving up fast after just two months of sales.

(table source: Monthly Market Pulse May 2014)
^* Mobile Phone sales only (not shipments). Tablets, PCs, dongles, fixed wireless devices not included. All regional or minor hardware variations included in each model.

For more information and/or to purchase a copy of the report please send an email to:
info@counterpointresearch.com

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high tech industry.

The post Top 10 Smartphones in May 2014 – Galaxy S5 Fails To Displace iPhone 5s appeared first on Counterpoint.

Xiaomi’s $130 smartphone, Redmi (Red Rice or Hongmi) topped the smartphone chart in China during May 2014, beating both Apple and Samsung at their own game. Xiaomi’s other two handsets are also in the top 10 list, the MI3 and the Redmi Note both phablets with 5 inch or larger screens.

Xiaomi has not yet entered many of the other 35 markets that Counterpoint tracks, but the Redmi was the 5th bestselling smartphone in April on a global basis. This underscores how important the Chinese market is in terms of sheer market size.

Apple’s iPhone 4s and 5s come in at second and third place in China. While the premium iPhone 5S is the global bestseller, the iPhone 4S is more popular in emerging markets like China. It also calls into question whether the iPhone 5C for was positioned correctly when launched. The iPhone 4S is Apple’s means to reach the emerging market users.

Samsung’s Note III continued strong share position shows China’s affection towards the brand and large screen devices. Samsung’s Grand 2 Duos and Galaxy S4 are also in the top 10 list making that a total of 3 devices from the Korean vendor.

Huawei’s Honor 3C is at 6th place which helped Huawei jump ahead of domestic rivals Lenovo and Coolpad. Huawei is the only other brand included in the top 10 list outside of Xiaomi, Apple and Samsung.
For the top 10 list in April only three brands dominated the chart with three devices each. They were again Xiaomi, Apple and Samsung.
Apple and Samsung are the more obvious brands but Xiaomi is still a surprise. It is a benchmark for local brands, large and small. A smaller company called Xiaolajiao launched its new “Red Pepper” smartphone and is creating quite a buzz. We expect a slew of similar products with similar brand campaigns to follow this year in China.

(table source: Monthly Market Pulse April 2014)

^* Mobile Phone sales only (not shipments). Tablets, PCs, dongles, fixed wireless devices not included. All regional or minor hardware variations included in each model.

For more information and/or to purchase a copy of the report please send an email to:
info@counterpointresearch.com

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high tech industry.

The post Top 10 Smartphones in China for April 2014 appeared first on Counterpoint.

Apple’s iPhone 5s continues to be the bestselling phone in the world – a position it has held for 6 consecutive months. The iPhone 5c comes in at 2nd place in February, mostly due to the big clearance discounts in Western markets. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Note 3 tie for 3rd place as the end of life cycle Galaxy S4 still pushes huge volumes while the Note 3 is a spectacular hit in Asia markets where its large, high-quality display is seen as particularly attractive.

The big surprise is little known Xiaomi as two of its newest devices enter the ranks of the Global top 10 in February. The Hongmi Redrice comes in at 7th place and the MI3 at 10th place. The Hongmi Redrice is an affordable quad core device with a 4.7” screen running on a 3G network while the MI 3 is a phablet with a 5” vibrant screen with 441 ppi resolution but again much more affordable than its competitors from international brands. These are both 3G phones and mainly sold in just one country, China. It only recently started to ship to neighboring countries.

Samsung still placed 5 devices in the top 10 list while Apple had 3, new comer Xiaomi had 2. LG and Sony each have one model just outside of the top 10 list. Nokia’s 105, 108, 208 top the feature phone hit model list but none of its smartphones are in the top 20 list this month.

Commenting on the analysis, Counterpoint Research Director, Tom Kang noted, “We expect some changes in March and April as the new Galaxy S5 becomes available and the iPhone 5c discounts have ceased. We are also seeing good performances from the Motorola G and Huawei LTE models so there might be some volatility in the best seller’s list.”

Counterpoint’s India based Research Director, Neil Shah further commented, “The addition of Nokia’s aggressively-priced X-Series smartphones that are based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) platform, will also start to become available progressively over the next few months. After several quarters in the wilderness, these innovative devices will likely push Nokia back into the best sellers list.”

Peter Richardson who manages Counterpoint’s Tech Strategies made the following observation, “At the global level there has been little brand diversity over recent months. However the appearance of Xiaomi on the best sellers list highlights an increasing trend – local brands moving up the sales rankings in their respective countries. It’s a consequence of commoditization of hardware and software. Provided the price is sufficiently attractive, consumers are willing to try local brands over the higher profile global brands.”

(table source: Monthly Market Pulse February 2014)
^* Mobile Phone sales only (not shipments). Tablets, PCs, dongles, fixed wireless devices not included. All regional or minor hardware variations included in each model.

For more information and/or to purchase a copy of the report please send an email to:
info@counterpointresearch.com

Background:

Counterpoint Technology Market Research is a global research firm specializing in Technology products in the TMT industry. It services major technology firms and financial firms with a mix of monthly reports, customized projects and detailed analysis of the mobile and technology markets. Its key analysts are experts in the industry with an average tenure of 13 years in the high tech industry.

The post Top 10 smartphones in February 2014 appeared first on Counterpoint.

Apple’s iPhone 5S is now the bestselling phone of the month

The post Top 10 smartphones in September appeared first on Counterpoint.

PRESS RELEASE

The post Apple’s US Smartphone Share Doubles in September with new iPhone 5s and 5c appeared first on Counterpoint.

Galaxy S4 Sales continue to slump but the long tail Galaxy range makes up for it

Rank Brand Model

1. Samsung Galaxy S4 International version
2. Apple iPhone 5-16GB
3. Apple iPhone 5-32GB
4. Nokia Asha 501
5. Samsung Galaxy Note II
6. Samsung Galaxy S III mini
7. Samsung Galaxy S III
8. Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini I9190
9. Nokia Asha 205
10. Nokia 105

Source: Monthly Market Pulse August 2013 http://bit.ly/1fEJdgm

Analyst Contacts:

Peter Richardson

+44 20 3239 6411

peter@counterpointresearch.com

@MobilePeter

 Neil Shah

+91 22 2537 4784

neil@counterpointresearch.com

@neiltwitz

 Tom Kang

+82 10 2874 8133

tom@counterpointresearch.com

Counterpoint Research

+852 8191 4813

analyst@counterpointresearch.com

@CounterPointTR

The post Top 10 phones in August: Galaxy S4 sales drop but still leads the pack appeared first on Counterpoint.

The post Apple is still No. 1 in profits, Samsung will have to wait for its triple crown appeared first on Counterpoint.

Samsung leads the smartphone market in all regions except North America

The post Smartphone share by region in Q1 appeared first on Counterpoint.

The post Low Cost Android killing what was left of the feature phone market appeared first on Counterpoint.

Some key takeaways
– Samsung is selling close to 25 million smartphones a month. We expect it to sell more than 70 million units in Q1.
– Apple is also selling record numbers but the large inventory overhang from December has not been cleared.
Therefor Q1 shipments might only reach 35 million.
– Chinese vendors have almost doubled sales compared to the same period last year. LG is the only other vendor showing good sales in the first two months of 2013.

January and February smartphone sales were strong in a historically low season indicating good shipment numbers for Q1 2013 overall. There are more smartphones in the market than feature phones now; Smartphones crossed the 50% line, of total smartphone share within handset sales. Markets like Japan and Korea show more than 90% share of smartphones.

Samsung continued to rank as the top brand worldwide with 34% market share in the January-February period. Apple followed with 19% share. ZTE, Huawei and LG showed strong sales as the 3 surpassed Nokia during the first 2 months of 2013. The share of the other vendors grew significantly as Chinese local vendors like K-Touch, Gionee and Alcatel OneTouch almost doubled sales compared to the same period a year ago.

Android ranked first place in smartphone operating systems with 70% while iOS was 21% of the market. Windows seems to have established itself firmly as the 3rd operating system as it reached 5% share.

Research Director Peter Richardson explains, “the key driver of smartphone sales growth in the January-February period was the Chinese New Year holiday. It’s not just the Big 3 Chinese brands, Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo who sold impressive volumes. Starting from late last year other tier 2 vendors using the Mediatek solution have been active in the sub $200 smartphone space. Chinese vendors now account for 21% of the smartphone market.”

Of the big international brands only Apple, Samsung and LG showed growth in sales. Apple continues to sell well to the end consumer, but it had a big inventory problem in Q4 2012. Over 10 million additional iPhones were moved into the distribution channel at the end of last year. With less than 15 million units purchased by consumers in February this was not enough to clear the entire excess inventory. So we estimate Apple will end up shipping less than 35 million units in Q1.

Samsung on the other hand started the year with very low inventory and sales to end users are reaching almost 25 million units a month so this will all be translated to sell-in in Q1. Therefore we expect Samsung’s smartphone sales to exceed 70 million units in the quarter.

For more information and a free copy of the summary of the report please send us an email to:
info@counterpointresearch.com

The post February smartphone market share indicates Samsung will have another record quarter appeared first on Counterpoint.

Counterpoint Research releases new data of the Handset / Smartphone market. In the recent Country Market Share Report for Q4 2012, we find that Apple’s iPhone shipments take over the Japanese market.

– Apple took 16% market share in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 15% for the full year of 2012 reaching the No.1 spot for the first time in annual terms. It has been No.1 since November of last year.

– Other foreign brands such as Samsung and LG also increased share in Q4 and the combined share exceeded 50% for the first time in Japan’s history. Japan is no longer a Galapagos Island as global brands start to dominate.

The post Apple is the No.1 handset maker in Japan now appeared first on Counterpoint.

For the full report please send a request to info@counterpointresearch.com.

The post Q4 2012 Handset Value Share: Preliminary appeared first on Counterpoint.