Apple loses more ground in smartphone market
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple lost more ground in the shrinking smartphone market last quarter, with a sales tracker saying the tech giant was pushed off the top-three seller list by a rival.
Apple fell to fourth place in global smartphone sales, shipping 35.3 million iPhones in the second quarter, according to a report from IHS Markit this week. South Korean consumer electronics titan Samsung remained in first place with 23 percent of the market, having shipped 75.1 million smartphones, IHS Markit calculated. “Apple continues to face challenges in terms of unit shipments-a trend that is unlikely to be fixed soon,” IHS smartphone research and analysis director Jusy Hong said in an online post.
While California-based Apple has been aggressively promoting iPhones, current-generation smartphones have “super-premium” prices while models a few years old are still costly compared to bargain Android-powered handsets, the analyst reasoned.
Other smartphone market trackers such as Counterpoint Research and International Data Corporation concluded that while iPhone shipments sank in the second quarter, Apple remained in third place what it came to global shipments. Apple has been striving to wean itself off its reliance on iPhone sales with a focus on services, digital content and related gadgets. In the just-ended quarter, Apple for the first time took in less than half its revenue from the iPhone, the longtime cash and profit driver for the company.
Apple managed to grow its overall revenues, albeit by a modest one percent, to $53.8 billion, even as iPhone revenues plunged nearly 12 percent in the April-June period. The company delivered strong growth from digital content and services including Apply Pay and Apple Music, along with wearables and accessories like the Apple Watch and Air Pods. Apple has stopped reporting iPhone unit sales, but chief executive Tim Cook said during an earnings call that there was a “strong customer response” to iPhone promotions and financing programs.