Despite Huawei's ongoing challenges outside of China and a notable drop in shipments in the fourth quarter, it did manage to overtake Apple for the number 2 position overall in 2019, according to IDC.
Worldwide shipments of smartphones stood at 1.37 billion units, a level below annual shipment levels between 2015 and 2018, IDC report showed.
"The full-year decline in 2019 represents the third consecutive year of falling shipments despite the launch of 5G devices and new innovative handsets such as foldables,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Although the overall market dropped once again in 2019, the fourth quarter proved successful for some of the top players such as Apple, Xiaomi, and OPPO, largely due to new models but also shifting focus away from China, Scarsella said.
He added:
Both Xiaomi and OPPO performed well in India and are starting to gain traction in Western Europe in a similar fashion to Huawei a few years ago. Apple performed well domestically as its market share broke fifty percent in the fourth quarter.
Looking forward, 5G handsets – and to be more precise, affordable 5G handsets – will need to be the big catalyst in 2020 to avoid three consecutive years of decline.
Samsung managed to maintain the top spot for the full year 2019 with smartphone shipments of 295.7 million units.
The arrival of the latest Galaxy S series along with a new foldable next month should give the Korean giant a late 1Q20 push. Moreover, IDC expects the more affordable A series to also see some 5G versions at a much lower price point compared to both the S and Note series, IDC said.
Huawei is still facing heavy inventories to clear in China and the pricing of its Mate 30 series has also been a limiting factor. Nevertheless, domestic channel players are still willing to work with Huawei as it could provide a better brand value locally than its key competitors.
As a result, Huawei was still able to keep pushing new stock to channels, helped by the financing support incentives to the channel players, the report said.
Outside of China however, Huawei continued to face challenges. Although Huawei launched the Mate 30 series in some international markets, such as Malaysia and Singapore, the lack of Google Mobile Services still impacted its performance, IDC said.
The strong demand for the 11, combined with healthy trade-in promotions and financing plans, made the new device more accessible to a wider variety of consumers than ever before. Looking forward, rumors of a "SE" follow-up device could have Apple earning even more share in emerging markets if the price hits a sweet spot with budget-minded buyers, IDC said.
Xiaomi’s largest market continued to be India for the second quarter in a row as it has shifted some focus away from China. The online shopping festival during the Diwali period helped to support Xiaomi's 4Q19 performance in India, according to the report.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, worldwide smartphone shipments decreased 1.1% year over year.
Apple captured the top position globally in 4Q19, boosted by a strong performance in the holiday quarter, similar to 2018.
