iPhone Drops to 15% Market Share as Smartphone Market Goes Flat

The latest data from research firm IDC reveals that Apple's smartphone market share dropped to 15.3 percent in the March quarter as the worldwide smartphone market fell nearly flat during the first three months of 2016.

Smartphone-Vendors-Q1-2016
Apple yesterday reported iPhone sales of 51.2 million during the three-month period ending March 26, compared to 61.2 million units and 18.3 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, overall smartphone shipments totaled 334.9 million during the quarter, a year-over-year increase of only 500,000 units.

Despite the plethora of new features found on the newer "S" models, current iPhone 6/6 Plus owners may feel that a 6S upgrade may not be warranted at the moment. Apple also announced the new iPhone SE, which looks to challenge similarly priced Android options in numerous emerging markets where Apple has traditionally been seen as too expensive.

Samsung continued to lead the market with 81.9 million smartphones shipped for 24.5 percent market share, down only slightly from 24.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo rounded off the top five smartphone makers in the quarter as Chinese vendors continue to churn the top of the charts.

Huawei, which manufactures Google's popular Android-based Nexus 6P smartphone, shipped 27.5 million handsets during the quarter for 8.2 percent market share as it attempts to compete with Apple and Samsung in the U.S. market and other regions beyond China. Its market share was 5.2 percent one year ago.

OPPO and Vivo, meanwhile, pushed out Lenovo and Xiaomi respectively for the fourth and fifth spots on the top smartphone vendors list.

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Top Rated Comments

smacrumon Avatar
120 months ago
Apple's got its pricing all wrong. I would have entered the Apple ecosystem ten years earlier than I did. I simply couldn't afford to buy an Apple product earlier. Apple's retail prices are terribly overpriced, and in contrast, Apple's offshore workforce are terribly underpaid. How about some middle ground, Apple? Price lower and go for volume. Do we need to get to Huawei market share level before price changes are made?

No new
iPhone in 4 inch at 6/6s launch - mistake.
Retail pricing too high - mistake.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StrangeNoises Avatar
120 months ago
Wonder if they're starting to think, you know, maybe our new iPhone this year needs to be a bit less... boring.

... deciding to hang on to my 5s until next year...
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
American Hero Avatar
120 months ago
Apple's got its pricing all wrong. I would have entered the Apple ecosystem ten years earlier than I did. I simply couldn't afford to buy an Apple product earlier. Apple's retail prices are terribly overpriced, and in contrast, Apple's offshore workforce are terribly underpaid. How about some middle ground, Apple? Price lower and go for volume. Do we need to get to Huawei market share level before price changes are made?
No new iPhone in 4 inch at 6/6s launch - mistake.
Retail pricing too high - mistake.
The pricing isn't wrong with the entry level model, it's the storage that's the problem.

Should be 32 GB (5.5") for $649, and then 64 GB for $699.
Should be 32 GB (4.7") for $549 and then 64 GB for $599.

A 128 GB phablet shouldn't cost $1,000.00.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NT1440 Avatar
120 months ago
Jesus christ people. Can we stop with the marketshare nonsense? Apple clearly isn't aiming to be the leader in marketshare. Everything they do is to maximize the profit share of the smartphone business, which they are wildly successful at being pretty much the only money maker worth discussing.

I know everyone wants to be a Wall $treet big wig, but if your aim isn't marketshare, why the hell does everyone refer to it as if it's some type of ideal to aim for?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Crosscreek Avatar
120 months ago
Chinese are coming on strong with well engineered products at a reasonable price. You can't have a 16GB phone as the standard anymore and the days of 30% profit are over.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BarmyGnome Avatar
120 months ago
Saturation.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)