Worldwide smartphone shipments in the third quarter grew 9.1% over the second quarter, totalling 332 million units, according to a report published this week by market analyst firm TrendForce.
It notes Chinese vendors led in shipments, with their combined volume at 150 million units, representing 16.3% quarterly growth in the shipments of Chinese-branded smartphones.
The analyst firm notes numerous smartphone vendors unveiled their next-generation flagship devices ahead of Apple's iPhone 6S reveal in September. These included Samsung's Note 5, Huawei's Mate and Sony Z5 series. Consequently, much of this year's growth momentum in the smartphone market was concentrated in the third quarter.
However, TrendForce smartphone analyst, Avril Wu, says with the global economy projected to decelerate in the second half of 2015, smartphone shipments are expected to remain weak until the middle of 2016.
TrendForce's latest projection shows global smartphone shipments are set grow by 9.3% annually in 2015. In 2016, the annual shipment growth rate will drop further to 7.7%.
It notes that emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and India are now the major battlegrounds, as developed markets have become fairly saturated. Increasing competition also means profits will fall in spite of steady shipments.
The analyst firm believes Samsung's annual shipments will enter negative territory for the first time; whereas Apple will keep up its sales momentum in this year's second half with iPhone 6S.
Samsung retained its title as the top smartphone brand by contributing up to 25% of the global shipments in the third quarter, but the projected shipments of Galaxy S6 and S series devices for 2015 have been reduced to 40 million units. Approximately 10 million units of the newly launched flagship device, Note 5, will be shipped by the end of this year.
It points out Samsung has lost much of its shares in the low-end to mid-range markets to Chinese competitors. TrendForce, therefore, anticipates the vendor will see its first decline of annual smartphone shipments in 2015, with a 1% year-on-year drop and around 323.5 million units shipped.
Apple iPhone 6S captivated consumers with its 3D Touch technology and rose gold exterior, says TrendForce. Nonetheless, the new device will have quite a challenge to surpass the incredible overall shipments of iPhone 6, as there is not much that sets them apart appearance-wise.
Wu notes the main contributors to this year's iPhone shipments are the large-size models Apple introduced for the first time. Based on TrendForce's analysis, iPhone's annual shipment growth for this year will reach 16% with about 223.7 million units.
For its recently released flagship V10, LG avoided using the Qualcomm 810 processor and upgraded the device's RAM to 4GB, it says. The major feature, however, is its 2.1-inch secondary touch-screen. TrendForce projects LG's annual smartphone shipments to grow by around 8% this year.
Huawei becomes the first Chinese smartphone brand to reach 100 million units in shipments and cements its position as the third-largest vendor worldwide.
The firm says Huawei's shipment performance in the third quarter was much above expectations. Not only has the vendor achieved its target of 100 million units shipped this year, its annual result may be able to touch the 110 million unit mark as well.
The Mate S series, which was launched earlier than the iPhone 6S, features Force Touch, a rival technology to Apple's 3D Touch. Moreover, Mate S is priced at the high-end market level, indicating Huawei has ambition to position itself as the premier international brand. Based on TrendForce's estimation, Huawei smartphone shipments for this year will grow upwards of 40% over 2014.
It points out Xiaomi's attempt to enter the high-end market with the pricier Mi Note series was unsuccessful, and it will return to selling devices with high cost-performance ratios such as Redmi Note 2 and Mi 4c during the second half of 2015.
TrendForce's analysis shows Xiaomi will fall short of its shipment target for this year, which is also set at 100 million units. However, the vendor will be able to achieve 14.6% in annual shipment growth because of the contributions from its more affordable devices.
Share