The reality today is that the smartphone market seems stagnant, but it is the most renowned manufacturers who are looking in emerging markets for the possibility of improving their sales figures. We already know how India and many other countries are the target of those great brands that we all know and that fight to be the one that sells the most terminals. We also have the fight between Android and iOS to have a greater market share, a battle between titans that still lasts in time and it seems that it will continue like this for many years.
It is this increase in sales in emerging markets, which is allowing Gartner to have been able to share the figure of market share of smartphones that Android holds, which reaches 86,2 percent in the second quarter of the year in its latest figures contributed for mobile. The curious thing about these figures is that this quota increase is due to the fact that each time they are plus premium Android smartphones sold, a note that Apple will not like at all, an expert in this type of range and that will have seen how its sales have been reduced.
The high-end of Android cajoles more and more users
It's no surprise that the Samsung Galaxy S7 has been the guilty phone that Gartner can say that Android, apart from increasing sales figures in emerging markets, has also achieved a better market share in the sales of smartphones that usually exceed € 600 in price.
But let's really go to the sales figure of premium Android smartphones that has risen up to 6,5 percent in the second quarter of the year and to which Gartner clarifies that it is due to spectacular terminals such as the aforementioned Galaxy S7. But we can not forget about other manufacturers that are helping to improve that market share such as the Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Oppo.
And going back to Samsung, Gartner mentions how it is improving its own figures by taking again the lost market share in emerging markets to take 22,3 percent of all sales in the quarter, against 8,9% for Huawei and 5,4% for Oppo. Xiaomi could say that it is the harmed by losing share in this quarter.
Bad timing for Apple
Gartner does not forget Apple and if we have mentioned how more premium Android smartphones are sold, now Apple has 12,9 percent than it was a year ago with 14,6 percent. We can say little about Microsoft because it even gets worse figures than a year ago, so Windows 10 Mobile is a bit lame, although it has received the Anniversary Update it does nothing.
We are going to the general terms to comment that the distribution of smartphones grew by 4,3 percent in this period of the year, with global sales reaching the 344 million units. All already consolidated markets, except Japan, saw lower demand for smartphones for this second quarter, while all emerging markets, except those in Latin America, saw sales growth. The increase in smartphone sales goes to 9,9% in emerging markets, while it remains at 4,9% in those already more digested markets.
Another of Gartner's details is that the five manufacturers that sell the most they continue to increase their market share compared to the rest, from 51,5 percent to 54%. The winners in this regard are Oppo, Samsung and Huawei.
The smartphone market share of Apple has fallen by 7,7 percent with the worst sales in China and Asian regions, where iPhone sales fell 26 percent. By contrast, the best regions for the iPhone are Eurasia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe, where sales grew 95%.