14 DAY TRIAL // Shipments of new smartphones in the United States in the first quarter of the year dropped 11% versus the same period in 2017, totaling 38.7 million units.
Data provided by Counterpoint indicates that this is the first time in three years when sales of new smartphones dropped below 40 million units, but despite the decline, there’s still good news at least for some of the companies.
Apple is the strongest performer of the quarter with an increase of 16 percent year-on-year, enough to help Cupertino secure a market share in the United States of 42%. Cupertino now controls no less than 80 percent of the $800+ price category in the smartphone market, the research shows.
Samsung, on the other hand, dropped 4 percent to 22 percent during the quarter, with Counterpoint noting that sales of the Galaxy S9 have been rather slow. An increase is expected this quarter.
Strong Apple performance
This is the first time in history when Apple manages to ship 16 million iPhones in the first quarter of the year in the United States, once again confirming that despite analyst forecasts, the iPhone X sold well after the launch.
“Overall we see Apple’s continued dominance in the top sellers for Q1 as the X and 8 series hold the top spots with the older Galaxy devices not far behind. S9 pre-sales were sluggish compared to S8 sales last year but will probably pick up sales momentum in the following months as carriers are offering good trade-in deals. Motorola has been doing well with the E4 due to its low cost and solid specs for the price point—very dependable within prepaid and national retail channels,” Research Director Jeff Fieldhack said.
The more impressive achievement for Apple is that out of the 10 best-selling smartphones in the US in the first quarter, a total of six are iPhones. There are three Samsung models, none of which is the Galaxy S9, and one Motorola device.
