Brendan James: takeaways from the east, July 2018

Smartphone shipments are on the decline in the

EU, but nobody told that to China.

It’s July, and there’s a good chance you’re reading this on vacation right now. It’s a fallow month for news about the markets. Coincidentally, it’s also a good month to bring to attention news that just missed our publication last time around. And boy, this is surprising. Welcome to July’s Takeaways From The East.

Earlier this year the Handelot Times reported and analyzed the decline of smartphone shipments in China for the first quarter of 2018, the first such decline in years. Now Europe has been hit with a steeper decline, with reports of shipments falling 6.3% year-on-year for Q1.

According to Canalys, Samsung and Apple are the top two manufacturers on the continent, combining for 55.3% of the market. That’s to be expected by this point, but those expectations may soon be shaken up; Despite having the top spot, Samsung’s shipments shrank by a whopping 15.4%, possibly spurred by the high price of their flagship Galaxy S9. Meanwhile Apple’s share of the market sunk by 5.4%. The iPhone X, accounted for 25% of the firm’s shipments and was also the best-selling smartphone on the market for the quarter. An array of Apple’s older models, such as the SE, 6, and 6S, also combined to make up a quarter of their shipments and thus balance out their value growth.