IDC: Samsung and Apple are losing ground in smartphone market

Samsung and Apple are losing ground in the smartphone market. That is what analyst firm IDC claims based on its own estimates. The companies together sold 49 percent of smartphones last year, now that has fallen to 45.7 percent.

It is the first time that these leading smartphone makers are losing ground in the smartphone market. The sales of both manufacturers did grow strongly, IDC has calculated. However, as the market as a whole grew even more, the market share of both manufacturers declined. Something similar happened to Nokia after the release of the iPhone and the first generation of Androids; sales continued to rise, but market share did not.

What Apple and Samsung lose in market share is largely added to the Other category, in which all manufacturers fall outside the top 5; IDC does not specify which manufacturers are experiencing growth and which are seeing sales decline. The Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Lenovo have been in the top 5 for a while now and are doing relatively well. Huawei is reaping the benefits of global marketing and distribution, Lenovo is currently mainly active in the home market. IDC does tip Lenovo as a future global player, because the Chinese company takes over the American Motorola from Google and is therefore suddenly present in the American and European market.

In total, according to IDC, compared to the same months last year, 28 percent more smartphones were sold. Incidentally, IDC measures devices supplied by manufacturers to retailers and phones not actually sold. Apple’s iPad sales, among others, seemed higher last year due to stockpiling, something that Samsung did earlier, which means that the figures reported here may deviate from actual sales. In addition, some manufacturers do report how many devices they have sold, but others, including market leader Samsung, do not. Those figures are therefore estimates.