Counterpoint Research has just published a new report revealing disappointing smartphone sales for the first months of 2020. According to the research, premium smartphones saw a decline of 13% in sales for the January – March period on a yearly basis. This takes in consideration smartphones that are priced above $400.
The range of premium devices covers a wide array of smartphones not only considering the ultra-premium devices. The report reveals a huge domain established by Apple. The company had 57% of the global premium market in Q1. In second place, we can see Samsung with just 19%. Huawei rounds out the top-three with a 12% market share followed by its Chinese fellows Oppo and Xiaomi. The last two companies complete the top-five with 3% and 2% respectively.
Interestingly enough, Apple had 4 of the top-5 premium smartphones on the global market. The iPhone 11 was the leader with 30% of the sales in the segment. It was followed by the 11 Pro Max with 9% market share and 11 Pro with a 7% market share. In fourth place, we have the iPhone XR with 6%. In the fifth place, we have the Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G (3%). It’s interesting to see how Huawei managed to hit the top five with a smartphone that is slightly limited in terms of availability.
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Apple also dominated regional ranking besides China. In the country, Huawei has kept the domain to the surprise absolutely no one. Samsung was in second place in all markets except China where Apple took that spot. The third spot in the regional rankings offered plenty of diversity with Google, Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Oppo achieving a place in the podium.
5G keeps pushing the smartphone market this year
Counterpoint research also states that smartphones in the $600 to $799 price range grew the most in the first quarter of 2020. The share of 5G phones in the premium segment is also growing and now accounts for 20% of the premium smartphone market. This will grow even further this year, especially with the entrance of Apple in the 5G era.
Huawei moves the range with its strong push in China achieving over 42% of the total 5G device sell-through in the premium segment. Interestingly enough, the continuous growth of 5G smartphones is being pushed by the increase of affordable smartphone bearing support for the next connectivity standard. 39% of all 5G devices are now in the $400 to $600 price band. That’s up from 35% in the previous quarter. Within the regions, 63% of all 5G devices in the premium segment were in China.
According to Counterpoint, the premium segment should remain the most resilient from the COVID-19 impact.