The smartphone market has seen significant growth in recent years. However, sales declined in 2019.According to a group of analysts at Gartner , the decline in smartphone sales continued into the second quarter of the year.
Sales have fallen by 1.7% over the past year. That may not sound like much, but it's an ongoing problem for smartphone companies. Last year, 374 million phones, while in 2019, 368 million were sold. The biggest drop is in the most expensive smartphones, as higher prices combined with fewer features contribute to the decline.
Of the five major smartphone markets, only China and Brazil saw growth. However, China's growth rate was just 0.5%, so it didn't help the overall market. Gartner noted that the growth, or some of the growth, in China could be due to smartphone makers trying to sell off older phones to make way for 5G models.
The second largest market, India ,saw a 2.3% decline. It is expected that the percentage of smartphone sales will remain low until the end of 2019.
Apple , as in the first quarter of 2019, also saw a decrease in its sales . However, it is at a better level compared to the first quarter. On the other hand, Samsung and Huawei were the bright exceptions. Samsung saw growth in sales of simpler and more affordable models, such as the Galaxy A series. As for Huawei , it seems that the postponement of the ban by the US helped boost sales of its smartphones in the second quarter.
