iPhone Dropped to 4th Largest Phone Manufacturer, Losing to Samsung, Huawei & Oppo

Now, before you go crazy selling or buying Apple stocks…

Just note that this refers to 4th in the second quarter of 2019.

Report from IHS Markit, in terms of shipments

According to their report, these companies shipped this amount of phones:

1. Samsung 75.1 million smartphones (23% of the market)
2. Huawei 58.7 million (18%)
3. Oppo 36.2 million (11%)
4. Apple 35.3 million (11%)
5. Xiaomi 31.9 million (10%)
6. Vivo 28.4 million (9%)
7. LG 8.9 million (3%)
8. Motorola 8.3 million (3%)
9. Tecno 3.9 million (1%)
10. TCL-Alcatel 3.8 million (1%)

Yeah, Oppo overtook them, with a year on year increase in shipments of 13%.

Considering we haven’t done an article centred around them for so long, we’re probably as surprised as you are.

But the numbers above probably only refers to US shipments. Other smartphone market trackers like Counterpoint Research and International Data Corporation say that Apple is still in third place in global shipments.

China market still rising despite US-China relationship

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, maybe it’s time to revise the Huawei fiasco a little with these 2 articles. Or you can just simply mark the US-China relationship as “It’s Complicated”, and it will have the same effect.

Anyway, Huawei saw smartphone shipments increase even among all these, in a CNA article.

And combining all of the Chinese companies Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Realme brings the market shipments to 42%, which is a new record, according to Counterpoint Research.

Considering Huawei’s 5G is also considered to be way ahead of US’s version of 5G at the moment, it’s probably not going to surprise anyone if China continues getting ahead (or maybe just Huawei, who knows).

Relax, Apple Isn’t Dying

Although iPhone sales are dropping slightly, Apple has shifted its focus to services, digital content and related gadgets.

You know, like Apple Watch, Air Pods, Apple Music, Apple Upgrade Programme.

Less than half their revenue comes from iPhone now, and they actually grew their overall revenue, even though it is only 1%, to US$53.8 billion despite the 12% drop in iPhone smartphone revenue.

Even in China, Apple saw sales improve, with a double-digit increase in services revenue because of the growth of the App Store there.

And even with this report, let’s just chill and realise that iPhone 11 is likely to be revealed in Sep 2019. What do people do when a phone is about to come out, but they want to upgrade and don’t need to upgrade yet?

They wait for the new model to release, and one of 2 things happen:

• They buy a new model because the new things are cool
• They buy a slightly older model because a new model = price drop

Let’s not also forget that people are also speculating about 5G.

Random Apple fact: $1 Million Reward For Anyone Who Can Hack An iPhone

That’s the highest of any tech company so far, according to Forbes.

What this fact got to do in relation to the rest of the article above is, well, nothing.

But being able to say that “Apple is giving cash rewards of S$1 Million” is a lot more fun to say than “Apple market share drop as part of the market cycle”.

So, to any panicking Apple fanboys/girls or haters there, relax.