'Q1 smartphone sales flat as demand weakens in China, Brazil'

Global smartphone shipments remained flat at 344 million units in January-March, impacted by weaker demand in China and Brzail as well as parts of Europe, research firm Counterpoint said today.
This is the first time ever since the launch of smartphones that the segment has seen no growth, it said.
While three out of four mobile phones shipped on the planet now are smartphones but shipment has "slowed down considerably", Counterpoint said in a report.
"The slowdown can be attributed due to higher sell-in during the holiday season quarter and weaker demand in markets such as Brazil, China, Indonesia and parts of Europe," the report said.

Also, Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo have captured 33 per cent of the global smartphone market, it added.
"This is the first time ever since the launch of smartphone, the segment has seen 0 per cent growth, signaling the key global scale players need to invigorate sales with more exciting products and pricing schemes," he said.

Samsung led the smartphone market by volume with a market share of 22.8 per cent. However, its smartphone shipments declined six per cent year-on-year.
Apple, which saw its iPhone shipments declining, ranked second in the tally with 14.9 per cent share.
Others in the list included Huawei (8.3 per cent), Xiaomi (4.2 per cent), LG and Oppo (3.9 per cent each).

In terms of revenue share, Apple led the smartphone market with a healthy 40 per cent revenue share.
About 63 per cent said they are likely to buy a smartphone
in the next 12 months, while 38 per cent said the likely purchase would be a tablet, followed by smartwatches (36 per cent), fitness bands (22 per cent), e-readers (17 per cent), and VR headsets (11 per cent), the report added.
The study found that reliance on Wi-Fi has reduced considerably because of higher penetration of mobile data.
While 45 per cent Indian respondents had last year said they used Wi-Fi to connect to Internet, this year the number dropped to 21 per cent.

Number of people using mobile networks for using Internet has grown from 55 per cent last year to 59 per cent this year.
Besides, about 45 per cent of respondents said they would subscribe to 4G or LTE in the next 12 months.