Smartphone shipments increased 15 percent — slowest growth rate for six years — to 340 million units in the second quarter of 2015. Apple and Huawei increased their smartphone market share, said Strategy Analytics.

“Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets of the US, Europe and China. Smartphones will need a design transformation to revitalize growth in the future, such as foldable or rollable displays,” said Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.

Samsung shipped 71.9 million smartphones and captured 21 percent share in Q2 2015, dipping from 25 percent in Q2 2014. Samsung faced competition from Chinese brands in the low-end smartphone market, while the Korean company underestimated demand for its S6 edge model in the high-end, said the report.

Apple shipped 47.5 million smartphones and grabbed 14 percent market share, rising from 12 percent in Q2 2014. Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models remained wildly popular in China and worldwide.

Huawei moved up to third position with 9 percent smartphone share in Q2 2015 – fuelled by its expansion in Asia, Europe and North America. Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, LG, Sony and Alcatel faced pressure from Huawei.

Xiaomi re-captured fourth position with 6 percent smartphone share in Q2 2015, ahead of Lenovo-Motorola in fifth place with 5 percent share. Xiaomi has good distribution channels and competitive pricing in its large home market of China.

Lenovo-Motorola is struggling with the transition from 3G to 4G smartphones in China and the United States.

Meanwhile, Juniper Research said smartphone shipments rose 16 percent to 338 million in Q2 2015.

While the launch of the P8 helped Huawei to nearly 50 percent growth, Xiaomi shipped 20.5 million, representing an increase of a third compared to this time last year.

The difference between Huawei and Xiaomi is that Huawei is currently making an effort to expand beyond Asia. Xiaomi is not, leaving it vulnerable to the slowing of the Chinese market, which is also affecting ZTE.

Juniper Research said Apple shipped 47.5 million iPhones — fuelled by growth in China. Apple revenue from China increased 112 percent to over $13 billion.

LG smartphone shipments fell 3 percent to 14.1 million. Microsoft achieved 12 percent growth in shipments to 8.4 million in the lead up to Windows 10. BlackBerry shipped just above 1 million smartphones.

Baburajan K
[email protected]