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2018 Smartphone Shipments Down 4.3% to 1.37b
January 28, 2019

Sigmaintell Consulting showed that of global handset sales of 1.82 billion units for 2018, smartphones accounted for 1.37 billion units, down 4.3% Y/Y. The company estimated global smartphone sales volume for 2019 to be down 1.1% on year to 1.36 billion. Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo surged to a 77% share up from 70% in 2017, demonstrating a significant pickup in brand concentration amid fierce market competition. Samsung is expected to remain #1 in 2019 by rolling out new technology including hole-punch style of selfie front camera, in-display fingerprint screen, multi-cameras 5G and foldable displays in 2019.  Samsung released the world's first hole-punch camera phone, Galaxy A8s, on December 11, 2018. The through-hole, punched on the top left of the screen, is designed to house front camera for selfie use. BOE Technology supplies the hole-punch panels. Sigmaintell forecast global sales of hole-punch smartphones could reach 110 million units in 2019 for a penetration rate of 8%, with the rate expected to rise sharply to 20% in 2020. The penetration rate for all-screen smartphones shot up from 9% in 2017 to 64% in 2018, and is estimated to surge further to 86% in 2019 and 93% in 2020.