Apple may have had a decline in iPhone shipments for the first time since launching the first model in 2007. But Apple wasn’t the only company to see a slump in smartphone sales: According to a new report from IDC, the smartphone market only grew by 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2016, with total shipments of 334.9 million, up from 334.3 million during the same period in 2015.

That’s the smallest amount of year-to-year growth since IDC started tracking smartphone sales, and the research firm figures it’s because of market saturation in developed countries (most people who want a smartphone already have one, and may not feel the need to upgrade to a new model frequently).

But things are still rapidly changing in China — and that’s led to a big shakeup in the top 5 list of smartphone makers (as measured by device shipments).

vivo xplay5

Samsung, Apple, and Huawei continue to take first, second, and third places, respectively. But Lenovo and Xiaomi have fallen off IDC’s top 5 list.

They’re replaced by Oppo and Vivo… companies that have become big names rather quickly in China (and to folks who read sites like Liliputing, which cover Chinese phones from companies  Vivo and Oppo from time to time), but which don’t yet sell devices globally. Vivo is primarily focused on China for now, while Oppo offers phones in its home country and also in other Asian markets and a few other regions. Neither company is targeting the US yet.

But with shipments of 18.5 million phones in the first quarter of the year, IDC puts Oppo in fourth places with a 5.5 percent market share, while Vivo’s 14.3 million units puts the company in 5th place. Both companies more than doubled their shipments from the same period a year earlier.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers