Gartner: iPhone sales were flat year-over-year

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 380 million units in the first quarter of 2017, a 9.1%  increase over the first quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile phone buyers are spending more to get a better phone, resulting in the rise in average selling prices of types of phone, according to the research group.

Samsung’s smartphone sales declined 3.1% in the first quarter of 2017. Sales of iPhones were flat, which led to a drop in market share year-over-year from 14.8% global marketshare in the first quarter of 2016 to 13.7% in the first quarter of 2017. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) expects the upcoming “iPhone 8” to reverse this trend.

Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo have seen their combined global smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2017 account for 24%, up seven percentage points year-on-year.

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, the battle is now clearly between Android and iOS. With other operating systems struggling for momentum, Android grew its share by 2%. Growing acceptance of Chinese brands in the global markets, led by high-quality smartphones, is driving Android OS dominance. Moreover, with Google’s announcement of Android Go — targeted at the entry-level smartphone market — the OS is heading for continued growth, opines Gartner.

The research group says that, as of the first quarter of 2017, Android has 86.1% share of the mobile OS market, compared to iOS’ 13.7%. Apples OS is down from 14.8% in quarter one of 2016, according to Gartner.