Samsung gains ground on smartphones

Following a rocky year of recalls and other exciting events, Gartner has found that phone-slinger Samsung could be doing quite well.

Samsung sold about 82,535 smartphone units in the second quarter of 2017, compared to about 76,744 in the second quarter of 2016, according to Gartner research.

Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta told The Register the improvement was from sales of the Galaxy S8 in the North American market and sales of its J Series in emerging markets.

Second-placer Apple sold about 44,315 units in the second quarter of 2017, down from about 44,395 in the second quarter of 2016.

Gupta attributed Apple's "marginal" decrease to folks waiting for its new iPhone (which will be a bigger change from last year's upgrade).

Huawei was at about 35,964 units sold, from about 30,671 in the second quarter of 2016. Its mid-tier, sub-$300 smartphones have been doing well in emerging markets, while its P Series has been succeeding elsewhere, Gupta says.

Chinese challenger brand Oppo is at about 26,093 units sold from about 18,113 in the second quarter of 2016, because of its "aggressive" expansion in China with selling, marketing, offline sales and China-specific Android UI, Gupta says. For similar reasons, Vivo hopped to about 24,325 from about 14,241.

But overall, sales in China this quarter are actually down, at about 101,525 from about 114,171 in the second quarter of 2016. Gupta says this is because small smartphone players are having trouble competing with the big players, and the market is shrinking.

We can still expect growth in the smartphone market, Gupta says. Emerging markets will continue to see the biggest growth – from replacement buyers as well as first-time buyers (other markets have peaked or will probably only see a few points of improvement). ®