Windows Phone Sales Slide In Q3: Market Share Now 1.7%

Apple continued to dominate the premium smartphone segment with its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, while the global launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during the last week of September further added to its overall sales during the quarter.

Huawei generated smartphone sales momentum both in its home and global markets, Gartner stated, particularly Europe, where sales were driven by its ever-growing brand visibility.

“The availability of affordable smartphones in emerging markets saw consumers upgrade their ‘feature phones’ to smartphones more quickly because of the small price gap,” Anshul Gupta, Gartner research director, commented.

“Smartphone sales in emerging markets rose to 259.7 million in the third quarter of 2015 – an 18.4 per cent growth over the third quarter of 2014 – while sales in mature markets saw growth of just 8.2 per cent over the same period.”

Samsung was the number one vendor for the quarter, capturing 23.7 per cent of the market, down from 23.9 per cent year-on-year (with unit sales up 14.6 per cent) Apple took out second position, claiming a 13.1 per cent market share, up from 12.5 per cent year-on-year (unit sales up 20.6 per cent).

Rounding out the top five, Huawei claimed the number three spot, capturing a 7.7 per cent market share, up from 5.2 per cent (unit sales up 71 per cent), Lenovo came in at number four with a 4.9 per cent market share, down from 7 per cent (units sales down 18.2 per cent), with Xiaomi also claiming a 4.9 per cent share, down from 5.2 per cent (unit sales up 9 per cent).

Meanwhile, Android and iOS dominate the operating system market, with Windows Phone sliding in the quarter.

Windows Phone captured just 1.7 per cent of the market, down from 3 per cent year-on-year. Android claimed an 84.7 per cent market share, up from 83.3 per cent year-on-year, with iOS claiming a 13.1 per cent share, up from 12.5 per cent.

“Despite the announcement of Windows 10, we expect Windows smartphone market share will continue to be a small portion of the overall smartphone OS market as consumers remain attracted by competing ecosystems,” Roberta Cozza, Gartner research director, commented.