Huawei, Samsung, and OPPO increased market share, while Apple and Xiaomi declined.
From Tuesday’s press release:
Apple’s iPhone sales continued to decline in the third quarter of 2019. Apple sold 40.8 million iPhones, a year-over-year decline of 10.7%. “Although Apple continued its sales promotions and discounts in various markets, this was not enough to s timulate demand globally,” said Mr. Gupta. “In the Greater China market sales of iPhones continued to improve, however, it follows a double-digit decline recorded at the beginning of the year. The iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max saw good initial adoption, which suggests that sales may be positive in the remaining quarter.”
Cue the spreadsheet:
My take: Still counting unit sales. IDC, as usual, disagrees with Gartner. IDC’s calendar Q3 report, issued three weeks earlier, had Apple shipping 46.6 million iPhones, down less than 1% year over year. Cue IDC’s spreadsheet:
Per usual, neither IDC nor Gartner report the most important business metrics: share of revenue and profits. Apple’s share of revenue is outsized in comparison to its unit share, and its share of profit (the lifeblood of every business in the world) far exceeds that of the top 3 “units” leaders – combined.
I’ll take Apple’s business model every day of the week over any of its competitors.
This shows there is no consistent methodology for estimating phone sales, so all these numbers are “not credible.” A 15% difference is not “rounding error”.
Instead of doggedly trying to sniff out the Jesus Phone Forever never-ending growth story with flailing attempts at pinpoint iPhone sales numbers, why not attempt to explore and define the real phenomenon of a growing and supremely satisfied open-pocket customer base?
@Kirk DeBernardi: Continuing growth story, right, Greg!
Just switched my Android daughter to an iOS daughter -:).
Am at Apple Store as I write. She is transferring data to her new iPhone 11, Product Red, 256G, Red Otter Case, Apple Protection Care along with new Apple Watch and Product Red Band. Another new addition to Apple’s continuing install base growth story. -:)