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Apple maintains hold on Aussie smartphone market

Coming in at second place in the global market.

Apple has continued its hold on the Australian smartphone market, coming in at first place for market share during the first three months of 2022.

According to research firm Gartner, Apple devices accounted for 46.5 per cent of smartphone sales to end users during the first quarter of the year, coming in at 840,000 units.

While enough to take first place, this is a 9.1 per cent decline in sales from the same quarter last year, when it sold 924,000 units.

The theme of declining sales was largely indicative of the Australian market at large, which saw sales drop by 2.2 per cent.

Samsung took second place with 659,000 units shipped, resulting in a market share of 36.5 per cent. This is an improvement from the same quarter a year ago, representing growth of 20.3 per cent.

In fact, third and fourth place in the selling rankings, OPPO and Xiaomi, also saw unit growth, albeit at a comparatively muted 4.1 per cent to 102,000 units and 2.8 per cent to 37,000 units, respectively.

Google rounded out the top five, coming in with 31,000 units sold, which was a 13.9 per cent drop for the quarter year-on-year.

The Australian smartphone market decline was subdued by comparison to global sales decline, which fell by 9.9 per cent during the quarter.

“A number of factors including delayed product launches due to ongoing component shortages, rising inflation and poor consumer confidence led to a market decline in the first quarter of 2022,” said Anshul Gupta, senior director analyst at Gartner.

Vendor-wise, Samsung was on top on the global stage with 75 million units sold for the quarter, representing a decline of 1.9 per cent and market share of 22 per cent.

According to Gartner, the South Korean company faced “intense competition and slowing demand for smartphones”, even with a strong response to its new Galaxy S22 series and foldable smartphones.

Apple, meanwhile, came in second place with 61 million units sold, resulting in market share of 17.8 per cent and growth of 4.3 per cent, making it the only vendor on the global stage to record growth of any kind for the quarter.

The vendor’s 5G line of iPhones in particular continue to drive upgrades due to its large iOS user base, Gartner claimed.

Xiamoi was third with 40 million units sold, coming in with a 17.3 per cent sales decline and 11.8 per cent market share, followed by OPPO in fourth with 30 million units sold, resulting in a 19.9 per cent sales decline and 9 per cent market share.

Vivo rounded out the global top five with 24 million units shipped, repr4esenting a 35.6 per cent sales decline and 7.3 per cent market share.

The sales decline felt by these three vendors were due to slowing demand in China, as well as a disruption in manufacturing capabilities.

The global decline is largely in line with previous predictions, with fellow research firm IDC claiming last month that the quarter saw an 8.9 per cent decline in global smartphone shipments year-on-year.