Apple struggles in Asia Pacific smartphone market: IDC

Apple fell out of the top five in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) as Chinese players — Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE all outshipped Apple in the second quarter of 2013.

Samsung continues to lead the smartphone market in the APeJ market, IDC said last week.

IDC did not share the specific market share of these brands.

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed cooperation with China Mobile to improve smartphone sales in China. Apple posted 400 percent growth in the Indian smartphone market, the device major said earlier.

IDC phone data for APeJ in Q2

IDC says phone vendors shipped 119 million smartphones in Q2 2013 Q2, up 10 percent quarter-on-quarter and up 75 percent from Q2 2012.

On the other hand, feature phone shipments declined 7 percent q-o-q to 106 million. Smartphones now account for 53 percent share in APEJ.

Homegrown brands comprised 38 percent of second quarter volumes, up from 20 percent in the same quarter of 2012, and 7 percent 2011 Q2.

IDC noted that Indian home grown brands — Micromax, Karbonn, Intex, Lava and Maxx are the rising smartphone makers in India.

mobile opportunities in emerging markets

“There is clearly a market maturity story at play here, where the trends could not be more different between mature markets and emerging markets,” says Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC AP’s Client Devices team.

Smartphone shipments in mature market dropped 12 percent quarter on quarter, while emerging markets increased 13 percent.

Both the <US$50 segment of smartphones gain some traction in China, and while the 4 inch+ screen size segment drove most shipments, the 5-6 inch segment saw its first gain in both China and India.

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