Global smartphone shipments down 4.9% in Q4 2018, Samsung leads with 70.4 million, Huawei posts 43.9% YoY growth

According to IDC, worldwide smartphone shipments reached a total of 375.4 million units during the Q4, down 4.9% YoY. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of decline. This downfall also marks the worst year ever for smartphone shipments with global smartphone volumes declining 4.1% in 2018 with a total of 1.4 billion units shipped. With challenging market conditions, Q1 of 2019 is also expected to have a decline further. China, which is the largest focal point for smartphone shipment continues to downfall, thus pushing the recovery further forward. The Chinese market which accounts for roughly 30% of the world's smartphone consumption, had an even worse 2018 than the previous year with volumes down just over 10%. High inventory continues to be a challenge across the market as is consumer spending on devices, which has been down overall. Chinese vendors like Huawei, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi – grew their share of the China market to roughly 78%, up from 66% in 2017. On a worldwide basis, the top 5 smartphone companies continue to get stronger and now account for 69% of smartphone volume, up from 63% a year ago. If vivo is included, which is currently number six and has been in and out of the ...