The worldwide smartphone shipment to end users came in at 366.2 million units in the second quarter of 2017, says Gartner. The research firm says demand for 4G smartphones in emerging markets boosted the growth by 6.7 percent over same period last year. Google's Android extended its lead in the operating system market to 87.7 percent while iOS accounted for 12.1 percent share.
Samsung saw growth in smartphone sales after three consecutive quarterly decline. The South Korean smartphone maker registered 7.5 percent year over year growth to capture a market share of 22.5 percent. Samsung is expected to continue its growth for rest of the year despite strong competition from Chinese brands. Strategy Analytics recently reported that Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8+ were two of the best-selling Android smartphones during second quarter.
Among smartphone makers, Apple was the ony brand to register year over year decline in its market share. Apple saw its sales decline 0.2 percent and now commands 12.1 percent market share, a marginal decline from 12.9 percent during same period last year. "Apple's sales in emerging markets are expected to grow as older-generation iPhones continue to attract buyers. The new iOS 11, which will include augmented reality, machine learning, an improved Siri and a new display design, will likely fuel strong iPhone sales in the fourth quarter of 2017," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.
Among Chinese smartphone makers, Huawei maintained its third position with a market share of 9.8 percent while Oppo and Vivo continued to grow their market share. Gartner estimates Vivo and Oppo to have achieved 70.8 percent and 44.1 percent year over year gain in sales. Oppo is currently the fourth largest smartphone brand globally with a market share of 7.1 percent while Vivo is in fifth position with 6.6 percent share.
Among regions, Greater China and emerging Asia Pacific markets were responsible for driving the sales in the second quarter of 2017. "Although demand for utility smartphones remains strong, there is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones, with more storage, better processors and more advanced cameras," said Gupta.
With Samsung, Apple and LG planning to introduce new smartphone during the next few weeks, the market share is likely to change during the third quarter. Apple's OLED iPhone with edge-to-edge display and new augmented reality applications is one of the most leaked and anticipated smartphone of this year. With the OLED iPhone, Apple is expected to regain its lost share in the premium smartphone segment.