Smartphones shipments continued to show no sign of slowing down in Q3 2014 but the top five manufacturer list underwent some changes. According to the latest edition of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 327.6 million smartphones were shipped over the quarter, up 8.5% from the 301 millon the previous quarter and up 25.2% from the 261.7 million shipped over the same quarter a year ago.
“Despite rumors of a slowing market, smartphone shipments continue to see record-setting volumes,” said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “We’ve finally reached a point where most developed markets are experiencing single-digit growth while emerging markets are still growing at more than 30% collectively. In these markets, smartphone price points are making mobile computing possible where we once expected feature phones to remain dominant. This is great news for overall volumes, but the challenge has now become how to make money on devices that are quickly becoming commodity products. Outside of Apple, many are struggling to do this.”
Samsung continues to reign as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer but it stumbled as shipments fell year over year from 85 million in Q3 2013 to 78.1 million this quarter. It was the only manufacturer in the top five to show a decline. Apple remains in a strong second with shipments increasing 16.1% to 39.3 million. Xiaomi has jumped into third place (and the top five for the first time) with shipments growing 211.3% to 17.3 million, pushing Lenovo down to fourth in a virtual tie with LG.
The top five ranking could well change again next quarter. Lenovo has now completed its Motorola acquisition and this should allow it to take back third place unless Xiaomi can continue to grow at the breakneck rate it has experienced in recent times.
As IDC points out, “there is still room to compete in this market, whether it be in the low end as Lenovo has done, at the high end where Xiaomi competes, or in both as LG Electronics has shown.”
Source : IDC