The Market: In October handset sell-through continued to grow despite the sluggish Chinese and Korean markets. Sell-in grew faster than sell-out meaning inventory built up in the channel. But this is an expected event and consistent with previous years.
Smartphones increased to 73% of the market in October with proliferation continuing in the low end of the market. Android’s share in the smartphone category accounted for 83% of the smartphone market, while the iOS share was 14%.
Vendors: Apple’s share increased with its new products. Samsung is still hanging in but Note 4 sales were a bit sluggish. Xiaomi has good momentum but Huawei, Lenovo stagger as the Chinese domestic market contracts. Sony had a good month finally with the Z3.
Transfer Price-band analysis: The share of sales in the $400+ price band expanded as the new iPhone became available. All other price bands, including sub-$100 were squeezed. In October only 57% of global Android devices were under $200.
Hardware Features: Handset features have shifted more toward larger-than-5 inch displays, which comprised 54% of all smartphones sold in October. This segment more than doubled its share from 23% in January. Quad-core is also becoming a common feature with over 50% penetration in smartphones. LTE continues to grow and represented 48% of all smartphones sold in October.
Table of Contents
- Key Tekeaways
- Monthly Research Topics
- Tech Trends in 2014
- The Market
- Market Sizing – Demand and Supply
- O/S landscape
- Market by Price band
- Competitive Landscape
- Country Analysis: US/China/Korea/Japan
- Market share by Price band
- Vendor Analysis: revenue structures
- Features and Specs
- Hardware trends and feature adoption rates
- Average feature sets
- Vendor market share by feature set
- Hit model lists for major vendors, globally