According to market research firm, Gartner, Apple’s new iPhone sales in the holiday season is sluggish, iPhone sales fell at a record rate. The report stated that in the fourth quarter of 2018, global smartphone shipments increased slightly by 0.1% year-on-year to 408.4 million units. However, Apple’s iPhone sales in the fourth quarter were 64.5 million units, down 11.8% year-on-year, the largest single-quarter percentage decline since the first quarter of 2016.
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This double-digit decline has made Apple the largest player in the world to record the largest quarterly decline. In addition to North America and the mature Asia Pacific region, Apple’s iPhone demand in most regions is weakening. Apple’s sales in Greater China declined the most, and its market share fell to 8.8% in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 14.6% in the same period in 2017.
Samsung Electronics shipped 70.8 million mobile phones in the fourth quarter of last year, with a market share of 17.3%, ranking first in the world, but down 18.2% in the same period last year; the second and third place were Apple and Huawei respectively. The market share was 15.8% and 14.8% respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Huawei sold more than 60 million smartphones, achieving a 37.6% increase. OPPO ranked 4th in the fourth quarter, its smartphone shipments reached nearly 31.6 million units, with a market share of 7.7%. In fifth place was Xiaomi, with shipments reaching 27.84 million units and a market share of 6.8%.