There is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones: Gartner

The company had been hit hard by problems with the Galaxy Note 7, but the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are bringing back high demand for Samsung smartphones.

By Priyanka

| Updated: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 13:58 [IST]

According to the new report by Gartner, global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 366.2 million units in the second quarter of 2017, a 6.7 percent increase over the second quarter of 2016.

"Although demand for utility smartphones remains strong, there is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones, with more storage, better processors and more advanced cameras. This is translating into higher demand for mid-priced ($150 to $200) smartphones," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

"We expect a shortage of flash memory and OLED [organic light-emitting diode] displays will affect premium smartphone supply in the second half of 2017," said Gupta. Adding that, "We've already seen Huawei's P10 suffer from a flash memory shortage, and smaller, traditional brands, such as HTC, LG and Sony, are stuck between aggressive Chinese brands and the dominating market shares of Samsung and Apple in the premium smartphone segment."

The report further said that Samsung's smartphone sales grew 7.5 percent, year over year, after three consecutive quarterly declines. The company had been hit hard by problems with the Galaxy Note 7, but the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are bringing back high demand for Samsung smartphones.

Meanwhile, Vivo and Oppo achieved the best performances in the second quarter of 2017, with year-over-year sales increases of 70.8 percent and 44.1 percent, respectively. Vivo's smartphones with front-facing cameras have carved out a niche for themselves.

The report further said that increasing smartphone penetration in India, Indonesia, and Southeast Asian countries drove sales in the Asia Pacific that saw shipments of over 78 million units during the said quarter.

While sales declined in Greater China on a year-on-year basis, it continued to be the largest market for smartphones accounting for 27.7 per cent of the June quarter sales, report further said .

North America accounted for 11 percent or 40 million smartphones in the June 2017 quarter.