The global smartphone production volume for 1Q19 totaled 311 million units, showing a YoY decrease of 9%, says TrendForce.
The outlook for 2Q19 indicates that smartphone demand will stabilize, and the traditional busy season for stock-up activities will arrive in the latter half of the second quarter.
So global smartphone production volume in 2Q19 is forecasted to be flat YoY with 2018, holding steady at the level of 350 million units.
TrendForce further forecasts that the global production volume in 2019 will contract by 3.7% from 2018 to around 1.4 billion units.
In view of the escalating US-China trade dispute, TrendForce suggests that if the US is confirmed to impose a 25% tariff on $325 billion worth of imports from China, including smartphones, notebook PCs, monitors and many daily necessities, Apple will be most affected among other smartphone brands.
TrendForce’s ranking of smartphone brands by production volume for 1Q19 shows that the top six global brands, in order, were Samsung, Huawei, Apple, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo.
Despite the depression in demand, top contender Samsung showed no noticeable fluctuations in production thanks to the release of its flagship Galaxy S10 and stable sales across regional markets.
Samsung’s production volume for 1Q19 totaled 72.5 million units, at a level similar to the year before, while their second season sales are forecast to reach 73.5 million units, not budging by much QoQ.
Huawei took the second place in the production ranking for 1Q19 with itscproduction volume growing by nearly 44% YoY to 60.5 million units (Huawei’s own shipment tally shows 59.1 million units).
As for Apple’s iPhone devices, the worldwide sales of its latest models have been lower than expected mainly because of slightly higher pricings. China, previously one of the main battlegrounds for Apple’s high-end phones, saw Apple sales 1Q plummet by 26% YoY to 41.5 million units due to the double whammy of the US-China trade dispute and the increasing competition from Huawei’s high-end smartphones. Apple slid to third place globally.
OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo respectively took the fourth, fifth, and sixth place in the production ranking for 1Q19. These three Chinese brands face the same predicaments
source: electronicsweekly
