Apple is gaining ground on Samsung in a slowing smartphone market, according to Gartner’s latest report on mobile device sales. Samsung remains the market leader with a 21.9% market share in the second quarter, down from 26.2% a year ago. Apple has 14.6% of the market, up from 12.2% a year ago.
According to Gartner, 330 million smartphones were sold during the second quarter. That’s a 13.5% increase vs. a year ago, but it’s the lowest growth rate since 2013.
“China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta. “China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30% of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015. Its poor performance negatively affected the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter.”
Some Android phone makers that rely heavily on sales in China, including Lenovo and HTC, have recently announced layoffs. Meanwhile China’s Xiaomi appears to be growing quickly, and is taking market share from more established rivals.
The results reported for Lenovo during both periods include sales of phones made by both Lenovo and Motorola Mobility, which Lenovo now owns.
Aside from Apple, all the top smartphone makers sell Android phones. Gartner said that in the second quarter, Microsoft’s Windows phones had less than 3% of the market, and BlackBerry had less than 1%.
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