Since the end of last month, when the first smartphone sales results for the last quarter of 2018 began to come out, we saw how the longest shopping period of the year was not as positive for most handset makers, including Apple. .
However, contrary to the results released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the Gartner It was a bit more optimistic about world smartphone sales late last year but not for Ma, which saw 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 with 73 million devices sold in the same period last year. In addition, the smartphone market as a whole slowed down, rising only 0.1% during the fourth quarter of the year with 408.4 million handsets sold.
As we know, Apple's drop in sales was most significant in China, where Apple's market share dropped to 8.8% last quarter (well below 14.6% in 2017). Samsung was also unable to prevent the decline in share, 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 phones and that, in some markets, Apple's sales policy is simply incompatible with reality (we can certainly say that this is the case in Brazil). In that sense, Ma's own CEO, Tim Cook, said 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 top manufacturers at least in sales with its HomePod. According to data from Strategy AnalyticsIn the last quarter of 2018 Ma sold about 1.6 million units of the device, representing a 45% growth over the previous quarter.
Nevertheless, the firm said Apple's share of the global smart speakers was only 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Still, the numbers are worth celebrating, as the tendency was to see sales fall over time but Ma managed to maintain its expressiveness throughout the year.
Not surprisingly, Amazon Echo and Google Home led the market with approximately 13.7 and 11.5 million units sold, respectively. Together, the two companies totaled 65.5% market share.
As with the iPhone, the firm attributed HomePod's low sales volume to the value of the gadget; In many cases, devices from other manufacturers cost a third of Ma's speaker ($ 350) even though some retailers offer large price cuts of up to $ 100.
via TechCrunch, MacRumors
