Smartphones made by China-based Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) outsold Apple Inc’s iPhones in the first quarter of this year, seizing the California company’s second-place spot in a tightening smartphone market dominated by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a tracker said on Tuesday.
A total of 310.8 million smartphones were shipped globally in the first three months of this year in a 6.6 percent decline from the same period last year, preliminary data from Chinese-owned International Data Corp (IDC) showed.
It was the sixth consecutive quarter of decline for global smartphone shipments, the market tracker said.
Photo: AFP
IDC saw the results as a sign that this year would be another down year overall for smartphone shipments, apart from strong growth by Huawei.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that Huawei is laser-focused on growing its stature in the world of mobile devices, with smartphones being its lead horse,” IDC mobile device program director Ryan Reith said.
“The overall smartphone market continues to be challenged in almost all areas, yet Huawei was able to grow shipments by 50 percent,” Reith said.
South Korean consumer electronics behemoth Samsung saw smartphone shipments fall 8.1 percent to 71.9 million in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Huawei weighed in with 50.3 percent growth to ship 59.1 million smartphones and put it within “striking distance” of Samsung, IDC said.
Apple had a challenging first quarter, with iPhone shipments dropping by a “staggering” 30.2 percent from a year earlier to 36.4 million units, IDC said.
Price cuts in China, along with favorable trade-in deals, were not enough to coax people into upgrading to new iPhones, the market tracker said.
Apple delivered stronger-than-expected financial results for the past quarter as gains in services helped offset slumping iPhone sales, sparking a rally in shares of the technology giant.
An overall slowdown in the high-end smartphone market has been seen as a symptom of people waiting longer to upgrade to new models and a lack of the kind of captivating innovation that inspires them to do just that.
“Consumers continue to hold on to their phones longer than before, as newer higher priced models offer little incentive to shell out top dollar to upgrade,” IDC research manager Anthony Scarsella said.
“Moreover, the pending arrival of 5G handsets could have consumers waiting until both the networks and devices are ready for prime time in 2020,” he added.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last