Apple surges, Microsoft collapses in worldwide mobile phone market share

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global mobile phone shipments grew a lackluster 2 percent annually to reach 435 million units in the second quarter of 2015. Huawei overtook Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever.

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement, “Global mobile phone shipments grew a lackluster 2 percent annually from 428.0 million units in Q2 2014 to 434.6 million in Q2 2015. Smartphones accounted for 8 in 10 of total mobile phone shipments during the quarter. The 2 percent growth rate of the overall mobile phone market is the industry’s weakest performance for two years, due to slowing demand for handsets in China, Europe and the US.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung dipped 7 percent annually and shipped 89.0 million mobile phones worldwide, capturing 20 percent marketshare in Q2 2015. Samsung has stabilized volumes in the high-end, but its lower-tier mobile phones continue to face intense competition from rivals such as Huawei in Asia. Apple grew 35 percent annually and shipped 47.5 million mobile phones for 11 percent worldwide marketshare in Q2 2015. Apple outperformed as consumers in China and elsewhere upgraded to bigger-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models.”

MacDailyNews Note: Apple is the only vendor on the list who only ships smartphones. Apple has accomplished all of this with a handful of iPhone models only.

Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei shipped 30.6 million mobile phones and captured a record 7 percent marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015. Huawei is rising fast in all regions of the world, particularly China where its 4G models, such as the Mate7, are proving wildly popular. Huawei has finally overtaken Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Microsoft shipped 27.8 million mobile phones and captured 6 percent marketshare worldwide in the second quarter of 2015. Microsoft’s 6 percent global mobile phone marketshare is sitting near an all-time low. Microsoft continues to lose ground in feature phones, while its Lumia smartphone portfolio is in a holding pattern awaiting the launch of new Windows 10 models later this year. Xiaomi shipped 19.8 million mobile phones and captured 5 percent marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015. Xiaomi remains a major player in the China mobile phone market, but its local and international growth is slowing and Xiaomi is facing intense competition from Huawei, Meizu and others. As a result, Xiaomi may struggle to hold on to its top-five global mobile phone ranking in the coming quarters.”

Global Mobile Phone Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q2 2015
Strategy Analytics: Global Mobile Phone Vendor Shipments and Market Share in Q2 2015
Numbers are rounded. Strategy Analytics defines the the term “Mobile Phone” as smartphones plus feature phones combined.

The associated report is published here.

Source: Strategy Analytics, Inc.

MacDailyNews Take:

Steve Ballmer, aka Ballmer T. Clown, aka Uncle Fester
Steve Ballmer, aka Uncle Fester
This feel like a lovely time for a trip down memory lane:

 
There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.

If you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, April 30, 2007

 
Oh, by the way: Apple’s iPhone owns 92% of smartphone industry’s profits – July 13, 2015

 
Smirk.

 
 
SEE ALSO:
Apple iPhone shipments show impressive growth as Samsung falls – July 30, 2015
Samsung offers downbeat outlook for year ahead of new Apple iPhones – July 30, 2015
Apple’s indomitable iPhone 6/Plus sales unfazed by Samsung’s anemic Galaxy S6/Edge – June 2, 2015
iPhone 6, killer: Beleaguered Samsung’s Galaxy S6 sales are a total disaster – May 22, 2015
Beleaguered Samsung reports 30 percent decline in operating profit – April 28, 2015
Samsung Galaxy S6 phones suffer weaker than expected sales in South Korea homeland – April 22, 2015
15 percent of Samsung Electronics execs quit amid profit slump – April 2, 2015
Significant Android to iPhone switching weakens market for Samsung Galaxy S6 – March 24, 2015
Apple iPhone takes smartphone market share from Android around the world – March 4, 2015
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013

28 Comments

      1. The market is what it is and as long as people like you won’t buy AAPL, the stock won’t rise in price. There is no fixed market! There are just a bunch of sellers and few buyers

        1. Hey goofy, I do understand that and I do buy AAPL. I don’t hold it forever but it is generally in my portfolio. I have made tons of money on AAPL over the years. But Wall Street is not a conspiracy as so many morons here constantly bitch about.

    1. Cheering for market share is fine so long as 1) it’s the proper market segment (i.e. made of customers who will spend enough for you to make a profit), and 2) it isn’t distorted, like say merging a bunch of disparate OEM’s that happen to be running the same OS and reporting the total market share as if it comes from one big team. Make sense?

    2. Earnings = Market size * Marketshare * Average selling price * Profit margin

      Large/growing marketshare * low/dropping price or margin = nothing special.

      Large/growing marketshare * high/rising price and margin = candy on wheels.

      I suggest you cheer for marketshare in the second situation and not in the first.

  1. MDN take is right on.

    Shipped vs Sold. And did you all catch this,

    “Numbers are rounded. Strategy Analytics defines the the term “Mobile Phone” as smartphones plus feature phones combined.”

    Love how they throw in those “feature phones” so to pump up all those other companies numbers. I’m guessing they got paid for this by those “feature phone” companies.

      1. Exactly which companies make up “other”? I can think of half-dozen more also-rans not listed, but there needs to be at least a dozen different companies to make up 45.2% of the market; i.e., they are each under 4.8% of market.

  2. “Samsung has stabilized volumes in the high-end” Have they now? Didn’t they just blame terrible sell through on the Galaxy 6S on a manufacturing shortage? Doesn’t sound stable to me.

    1. Microsoft will always remain a higher valued stock than Apple due to Windows major market share. Microsoft’s value is growing by the day while Apple’s value is sinking. I don’t quite understand the reason, but I’m sure the big investors do.

      1. The market has changed.

        1. Apple sells more mobile devices now than the entire PC segment combined.

        2. The mobile segment overall is larger than the PC business.

        3. People use mobile devices more than PC’s. For example, many companies like Facebook now have more interactions on their service via mobile compared to PC’s.

        4. Microsoft is giving away the lastest operating system for free.

        One reason why Microsoft might have such a high P/E is because they recently took a loss on their Nokia investment. Another reason might be the perceived advantage Microsoft currently has in the game console market. This market will greatly expand because of China lifting the foreign console ban.

        The electronic game business in China is currently around $20 billion a year, and this should expand fairly quickly. It’s probably not a coincidence that Apple is releasing an Apple TV with gaming capabilities as soon as this September. My guess is Apple will try to tap into this growing Chinese console market.

  3. Microsoft up today. Apple down today. There are things that matter for some companies and then there are things that don’t matter for other companies. Microsoft’s ballooning P/E shows that Wall Street doesn’t care how much mobile market share Microsoft loses. Microsoft is still considered a better value stock than Apple is.

    1. The traders who swap spit with each others don’t give a damn about investing. . . they care about other things about whether a stock is a good longterm investment. They care what the stock is going to do in the next twenty minutes.

  4. Amusing. . . “Strategy Analytics defines the the term “Mobile Phone” as smartphones plus feature phones combined.”

    Yet here we have 89 million mobile phones and in the previous article there were 79.1 million smartphones, meaning only approximately 10 million of the mobile phones were “feature phones.” However, if 89 million phones were shipped, where are the dumb phones that used to make up 30% of their product mix just two years ago when 30% of their phones were smartphones, and 40% were feature phones. . . and that was BEFORE Samsung’s smartphone market crashed abysmally in the past three quarters! Something doesn’t quite doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t jibe here with the markets Samsung sells in.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.