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Global smartphone shipments declined for the first time ever on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter, two research firms reported Thursday. Juniper Research said that smartphone shipments fell nearly 6% on an annual basis to 320 million units in Q1. Strategy Analytics estimated that smartphone shipments declined 3% to 335 million units last quarter. “It is the first time ever, since the modern smartphone market began in 1996, that global shipments have shrunk on an annualized basis,” Strategy Analytics analyst Linda Sui said in a blog post . “Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets like China and consumer caution about the future of the world economy.” Samsung and Apple ( AAPL ), the two largest smartphone vendors, both posted declines in the quarter. Samsung’s smartphone shipments fell 4% to 79 million units in Q1. Apple’s iPhone shipments dipped 16% to 51.2 million units in Q1, Strategy Analytics said. Samsung was the No. 1 vendor, with 23.6% market share, followed by Apple, with 15.3%. Both lost ground to fast-growing Chinese smartphone makers including Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. On Tuesday, Apple reported its first-ever drop in iPhone sales . It said that its iPhone sales fell 16% to 51.19 million units in its fiscal second quarter, which ended March 26. For the current quarter, Apple signaled another decline in iPhone sales. Apple’s smartphone decline is attributed to difficult comparisons with the outsized success of the iPhone 6. The current-generation handsets, the iPhone 6S series, offer only incremental improvements in features. On Wednesday, research firm IDC said that smartphone makers managed to eke out a tiny gain in Q1. IDC estimates that smartphone shipments rose 0.2% to 334.9 million units. IDC said that shipments declined 0.6% for No. 1 vendor Samsung and 16.3% for No. 2 vendor Apple. But the Chinese vendors ranked third, fourth and fifth (Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, respectively) posted big gains in shipments, IDC said. Huawei increased its smartphone shipments by 58.4% year over year in Q1. Oppo and Vivo posted increases of 153.2% and 123.8%, respectively. Scalper1 News
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