IDC has released its preliminary smartphone shipment figures for the third quarter of 2018, and things are looking a little rough for the industry. IDC found that shipments were down once again in the quarter, making Q3 the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. The good news for manufacturers is that IDC doesn't expect this trend to last, as it thinks the market will begin growing again next year.
Not too long ago, almost every annual or quarterly tech market report would come with some bad news or prophecy. The PC market is dead or is at least dying, made obsolete by smartphones and even tablets (which are now also dying). And yet, the PC market still exists and has even grown just a bit last quarter. This quarter saw flat growth or even a decline but analysts now see and agree: the PC ain't no dinosaur on the verge of extinction.
The US government has started to close in on Huawei and, more recently, ZTE over national security concerns. Perhaps in retaliation, Huawei has seemingly been limiting the availability of its smartphones in the US. Now the Chinese company may be showing its true power, which could give the US even more reason to be worried. According to IDC, Huawei has just overtaken US-based Apple as the world’s largest smartphone vendor. It may be temporary but still proves the growing strength of Huawei’s brand.
For years now, prophets of doom have been talking about the death of the PC. To some extent, they are right. The PC of old have gone the way of the dodo and today’s PCs have very little in common with them. Last week, both Gartner and IDC published numbers that, for the first time in six years, showed growth for the steadily shrinking market. And while both market researchers advise cautious optimism, it’s hard to deny the trend that their statistics show: the PC isn’t going anywhere.
The Android versus iOS war may often be phrased in terms of Pixel vs iPhone, but new sales stats for Google's Pixel suggest there's a long way to go before Apple needs to be worried. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL launched last year to no shortage of enthusiasm from Android fans, replacing handsets that had been equally lauded by vocal users.
Aggressive pricing pushed Amazon's tablets ahead of Samsung last quarter, but even with Apple's iPad holding strong in pole position it may take a form-factor change to keep the segment moving. Sales of tablets slowed dramatically in 2017, according to the new Q4 2017 numbers from IDC, though some subcategories managed a little growth. Still, there are clear signs that consumers aren't going to settle for just a big display in order to open their wallet.
In the game of smartphone thrones, you never wear the crown for long. While Apple and Samsung always occupy the top two spots, who is above whom varies by the quarter or even data source. It seems that, for the last quarter of last year, Apple managed to win the blue ribbon against eternal rival Samsung. But while Apple fans may want to celebrate this victory, it might be short-lived for the industry as a whole. According to IDC, global smartphone shipments actually declined by 6.3% in Q4 2017 compared to the same period the year before.
This year is the first in smartphone hardware in a long time in which I felt like no game-changing changes came from any company. The smartphones revealed by HTC, Samsung, Apple, and the rest - they were all solid. But we've reached a point in the history of the smartphone where only the very rich should consider buying a new device every single year. Let me tell you why.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has defended Apple Watch sales, after a damning report on the state of the wearables market criticized the recently-updated smartwatch. According to IDC, Apple was the fourth largest wearable device vendor worldwide in the third quarter of 2016, with just under 5-percent market share. That's despite what IDC says is a whopping 71-percent decline in growth compared to the same period twelve months ago.
If shipment figures are any indicator, it would seem that the market, both consumers as well as manufacturers, are still uncertain about smartwatches and their purpose, let alone their appeal. According to market analyst IDC, the smartwatch market slipped by as much as 51.6% in the past quarter alone. And while that may be due partly to perplexing business decisions from the powers that be, it also reflects how smartwatches, more than two years after they became mainstream, still serve a very niche consumer market.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has released a new report with preliminary data that shows tablet shipments around the world continuing to fall. This continues a trend we've seen in quite a few previous quarters, with tablet shipments dropping year-over-year as prospective buyers continue to either opt for detachable form factors over the more traditional slate form or wait on their tablet purchase altogether.
IDC's most recent smartphone shipment report suggests that as Apple's smartphone unit shipments decline, Huawei rises, and Samsung pulls further away from the pack. In the second quarter of the year 2016, Samsung is well ahead of the smartphone-selling group with an estimated 77-million units shipped over the past three months. Next is Apple with an estimated 40.4-million units shipped, then Huawei with 32.1-million units shipped. Huawei was in third place this past quarter as well according to IDC.