Please find herewith the February 2016 edition of the Counterpoint Research Market Pulse covering the global sales in January 2016.

Overview:
Some of common themes after January 2016 sales analysis & monthly research topic are given below:

• Sell-through was seasonally weak through January. Ahead of the Lunar New Year festival, sales in China and Korea were slightly higher than a year ago. However in all other regions sales were lower y/y with few evident catalysts.
• Sell-in shipments dropped much more, helping the market clear inventory from the channels.
• Apple saw its share fall dramatically as interest in the iPhone 6s/Plus faded. This was not a total surprise as ‘s’ versions usually do less well than lead products in the iPhone series. It does however raise concerns over whether Apple is able to drive sufficient innovation into the forthcoming iPhone 7 to reignite forward momentum.
• Samsung is holding steady with around one fifth of the smartphone market. Its share is not evenly distributed though. It is notably continuing to suffer in China. However India, which still has considerable smartphone growth potential, is more receptive to Samsung; growing share in both overall handsets and smartphones. The other brands showing good share performance are all Chinese: Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Alcatel.
• China’s Lunar New Year drove a slight y/y uptick in sales thanks to promotions through multiple stores in the run-up to the week-long festival.
• China’s mobile payments revolution continues apace and is expected to continue growing strongly nationwide in 2016 with AliPay and WeChat pay enjoying dominant share.

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