2018 was the first year with a continuous decline in smartphone shipments, research shows

Last year wasn’t the best for the smartphone world, that’s fairly obvious by now. And while shifts between manufacturers mean that some companies achieved positive results, overall there was less to go around. A research done by Counterpoint gives us more details about exactly what transpired in the mobile market over the course of 2018.

Starting from the smaller picture, Q4 of 2018 was marked by a 7% decline compared to the same period of 2017, with manufacturers shipping a total of 395 million units during the quarter. Looking at last year as a whole, the drop was “only” 4%, but the results were in the negative for every quarter, making 2018 the first year without a rise in shipments, after the decline first started in Q4 of 2017. That’s 15 consecutive months of market shrinkage.

As reasons for these results, specialists point out the fact that consumers are holding to their existing phones longer and the significant drop in sales in China that couldn’t be compensated by emerging markets such as India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

But while the overall stats point to a stagnant market, the volatility within it proves that things are far from settled. According to the report, Samsung and Apple delivered 8 and 4% fewer smartphones respectively, which is still far better than LG, which saw a drop of 26% YoY.