Affordable Devices Are The Real Growth Area
The first quarter of the year saw the major growth coming from Chinese vendors – Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo, all of which gained market share. Huawei came in at No. 3 in worldwide smartphone shipments during Q1, with 9.8 percent of the market, up from 8.4 percent a year earlier. While many premium flagship smartphones have recently hit the market, IDC still expects "most of the growth to come from more affordable models," said IDC research manager Anthony Scarsella in the news release. "Despite all the popularity and media hype around premium devices, we continue to witness a shift in many companies' portfolios geared towards affordable devices with premium-type styling compared to flagship models," Scarsella added.
