Gartner Inc. has attributed the growing demand for affordable smartphones in emerging markets to boost the worldwide sales of smartphones in 3Q15. Global sales of smartphones to end users hit 353 million units, a 15.5 per cent growth over the same period in 2014, stated the market research company.

"The availability of affordable smartphones in emerging markets saw consumers upgrade their 'feature phones' to smartphones more quickly because of the small price gap," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. "Smartphone sales in emerging markets rose to 259.7 million in 3Q15, an 18.4 per cent growth over 3Q14, while sales in mature markets saw growth of just 8.2 per cent over the same period."

In 3Q15, Samsung refreshed its flagship devices just four months after its previous refresh to address slowing demand for its high-end devices, and further compete with Apple's large-screen iPhones. Apple continued its dominance in the premium segment of the smartphone market with its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models for most of 3Q15. The global launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during the last week of September 2015, along with the simultaneous launch in China, further added to its overall sales during the quarter. Huawei continued its growth momentum, driven by smartphone sales in both its home market and global markets, particularly Europe, where sales were driven by its ever-growing brand visibility.

Worldwide smartphone sales to end users by vendor in 3Q15 (thousands of units) Source: Gartner (November 2015) (The results for Lenovo include sales of mobile phones by Lenovo and Motorola both in 3Q15 and 3Q14.)

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Apple's iOS continued to see strong performance and grew 21 per cent, above market average. Android gained 1.4 per centage points in share year over year thanks to strong smartphone sales from Samsung and Huawei globally. Windows smartphone market share dropped from three per cent to 1.7 per cent YoY. "Despite the announcement of Windows 10, we expect Windows smartphone market share will continue to be a small portion of the overall smartphone OS market as consumers remain attracted by competing ecosystems," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. "Microsoft smartphones will mainly focus on driving value for enterprise users."

By: DocMemory
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