The fourth quarter of 2019 was an interesting one, with Apple once again becoming a real threat to Samsung in terms of global smartphone shipments, and with Samsung maintaining leadership in a few regions.
Counterpoint Research has now published a couple of infographics summarizing the key market activities that took place over the last quarter. They cover not only the smartphone market but the feature phone segment as well.
Samsung maintains leadership in 3/5 regional markets
Samsung and Apple were the most influential smartphone vendors in Q4 in terms of global shipments. They were on equal ground, with each company covering 18% of global smartphone shipments throughout Q4.
However, Samsung managed to cover a whole lot more of the LATAM and MEA markets, while Apple was dominant only in North America. In Europe where the Korean tech giant recently extended its influence, both Samsung and Apple had the same 27% market share (each), and in Asia, Samsung failed to make it into the Top 5 list.
Overall, the total global smartphone shipments in Q4 2019 grew 2% year-on-year, and all of the vendors combined have shipped around 401 million devices in the last quarter of the year.
Samsung is the fourth-largest feature phone vendor
As you're probably aware, Samsung's mobile product portfolio is not limited to smartphones, and the company also continues to sell feature phones in key regions. Samsung was the fourth-largest global feature phone vendor in Q4 2019, after iTel, HMD, and Tecno.
Samsung secured 17% of the feature phone segment in India but it missed the Top 5 list in all the other regions including the rest of Asia, North America, Europe, LATAM, and MEA. Nevertheless, it still is an impressive performance from Samsung's part given that it's been less than six months since the company partnered with Dixon to enter the Indian feature phone market.
It's worth noting that global feature phone shipments have declined 12% YoY, even though the segment grew 10% YoY in MEA. This is an inevitability of the aging technology, and eventually, we can expect feature phones to be phased out entirely, whether it will be in two, three, or in ten years from now. As mobile technology advances, budget smartphones should become increasingly cheaper to the point where they might become more compelling than feature phones even in emerging markets.
