Since the end of last month, when the first results of smartphone sales for the last quarter of 2018 started to come out, we have seen how the biggest shopping period of the year was not so positive for most device manufacturers, including Apple .
However, contrary to the results released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the Gartner was a little more optimistic about global smartphone sales at the end of last year – but not for Apple, which recorded the biggest drop during the fourth quarter in more than three years.
According to the firm, Apple sold 64 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2018, compared to 73 million devices sold in the same period last year. In addition, the smartphone market as a whole has decelerated, rising just 0.1% during the fourth quarter of the year with 408.4 million devices sold.
As we know, the drop in Apple sales was most significant in China, where the company’s market share dropped to 8.8% in the last quarter (well below the 14.6% in 2017). Samsung also failed to prevent the drop in participation, but the fall was lower: from 18% in 2017 to 17% last year.
In addition to the Chinese market, we know that users are also taking longer to switch devices and that, in some markets, Apple’s sales policy is simply incompatible with reality (we can safely say that this is the case in Brazil) . In that sense, Apple CEO Tim Cook himself said that iPhones could be cheaper in some countries.
HomePod
Another market full of ups and downs is that of smart speakers; in it, however, Apple has not yet managed to position itself among the biggest manufacturers – at least in number of sales – with its HomePod. According to data from Strategy Analytics, in the last quarter of 2018 Apple sold about 1.6 million units of the device, which represents a 45% growth compared to the previous quarter.
Despite this, the firm said that Apple’s share of the global smart speakers was only 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Even so, the numbers are worth celebrating, as the trend was to see sales drop over time – but Apple managed to maintain its expressiveness throughout the year.
As expected, Amazon Echo and Google Home led the market with approximately 13.7 and 11.5 million units sold, respectively. Together, the two companies accounted for 65.5% market share.
As in the case of the iPhone, the firm attributed the low sales volume of the HomePod to the value of the gadget; in many cases, other manufacturers’ devices cost a third of the Apple speaker ($ 350) – although some retailers offer large price cuts of up to $ 100.
via TechCrunch, MacRumors
