In 2017, smartphone sales to end users totaled over 1.5 billion units, an increase of 2.7 percent from 2016, according to market research firm Gartner, Inc. Huawei, ranked No. 3, raised its share in 2017, continuing to gain on Apple. At the same time, the combined market share of the Chinese vendors in the top five increased by 4.2 percentage points, while the market share of top two, Samsung and Apple, remained unchanged.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2017 (Thousands of Units), Gartner (February 2018)
| Vendor | 2017 Units | 2017 Market Share (%) | 2016 Units | 2016 Market Share (%) |
| Samsung | 321,263.3 | 20.9 | 306,446.6 | 20.5 |
| Apple | 214,924.4 | 14.0 | 216,064.0 | 14.4 |
| Huawei | 150,534.3 | 9.8 | 132,824.9 | 8.9 |
| OPPO | 112,124.0 | 7.3 | 85,299.5 | 5.7 |
| Vivo | 99,684.8 | 6.5 | 72,408.6 | 4.8 |
| Others | 638,004.7 | 41.5 | 682,915.3 | 45.7 |
| Total | 1,536,535.5 | 100.0 | 1,495,959.0 | 100.0 |
In the fourth quarter of 2017, global sales of smartphones to end users totaled nearly 408 million units, a 5.6 percent decline over the fourth quarter of 2016. This is the first year-on-year decline since Gartner started tracking the global smartphone market in 2004.
“Two main factors led to the fall in the fourth quarter of 2017,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner. “First, upgrades from feature phones to smartphones have slowed down due to a lack of quality “ultra-low-cost” smartphones and users preferring to buy quality feature phones. Second, replacement smartphone users are choosing quality models and keeping them longer, lengthening the replacement cycle of smartphones. Moreover, while demand for high quality, 4G connectivity and better camera features remained strong, high expectations and few incremental benefits during replacement weakened smartphone sales.”
Samsung saw a year-on-year unit decline of 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, but this did not prevent it from defending its No. 1 global smartphone vendor position against Apple.
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q17 (Thousands of Units), Gartner (February 2018)
| Vendor | 4Q17 Units | 4Q17 Market Share (%) | 4Q16 Units | 4Q16 Market Share (%) |
| Samsung | 74,026.6 | 18.2 | 76,782.6 | 17.8 |
| Apple | 73,175.2 | 17.9 | 77,038.9 | 17.8 |
| Huawei | 43,887.0 | 10.8 | 40,803.7 | 9.4 |
| Xiaomi | 28,187.8 | 6.9 | 15,751.3 | 3.6 |
| OPPO | 25,660.1 | 6.3 | 26,704.7 | 6.2 |
| Others | 162,908.8 | 39.9 | 195,059.1 | 45.1 |
| Total | 407,845.4 | 100.0 | 432,140.3 | 100.0 |
In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Google’s Android extended its lead by capturing 86 percent of the total market in 2017. This is up 1.1 percentage points from a year ago. “The competition in the smartphone market is unabated at this time of the year,” said Gupta. “Ahead of MWC, several phone manufacturers such as Samsung, HMD (Nokia), Asus and LG have announced that they will launch new Android smartphones.”
Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2017 (Thousands of Units), Gartner (February 2018)
| Operating System | 2017 Units | 2017 Market Share (%) | 2016 Units | 2016 Market Share (%) |
| Android | 1,320,118.1 | 85.9 | 1,268,562.7 | 84.8 |
| iOS | 214,924.4 | 14.0 | 216,064.0 | 14.4 |
| Other OS | 1,493.0 | 0.1 | 11,332.2 | 0.8 |
| Total | 1,536,535.5 | 100.0 | 1,495,959.0 | 100.0 |
