Apple Shipped Over Half Of Total High-End Smartphones In 2018, OnePlus Entered Top Five

Apple keeps its leading position in the high-end smartphone segment in the world in spite of losing out the second position in the major smartphone manufacturers to Huawei tech giant last year. It is known that the company now holds 51% of total smartphone shipments in the high-end segment, down 7% year-on-year. However, Apple remains commanding value in spite of the increase in price of its new smartphones such as the flagship iPhone XS/XS Max. Also, the Counterpoint Research showed that the high-end segment had faster growth than the smartphone market in the world last year, and OnePlus also became one of top five high-end brands for the first time.

The high-end smartphone segment in the world increased by 18% YoY in sell-through and 14% YoY in sell-in in 2018. And according to Counterpoint Research, this growth was boosted by the introduction of the latest iPhones as well as high-end devices from Chinese phone makers such as Huawei, OPPO, and OnePlus. The Cupertino-based company with 51% market share holds an important leading position over second-position Samsung whose market share is 22% in the high-end smartphone segment in the world. But the Chinese phone makers also made the mark for the first time in the high-end segment by gaining 2-digit market share.

Counterpoint Research also stated that Huawei gained 10% market share in the segment, up 2% year-on-year. OPPO increased by 863% to gain 6% market share while OnePlus held 2% market share in the same segment. Also, Xiaomi grew 149% in the high-end smartphone segment during the year. The top five phone makers held 90% of all phones sold, however, there are nearly 40 OEMs joining the competition in the global high-end segment.

The performance of Huawei was driven by the Mate 20 and P20 series’ success. OPPO posted strong growth in China with the R17 and R15 series. Meanwhile, the performance of OnePlus was led by the OnePlus 6T, and it achieved the highest shipments in only one quarter during the fourth quarter in the Indian market to hold the no.1 position in the high-end segment for 3 consecutive quarters. In addition, Google was also among top five high-end smartphone brands in the Western Europe last year.

It is known that APAC was the region with the fastest growth for the high-end segment with 27% growth year-on-year. The U.S and China played a major role in over half of the high-end market shipments globally. According to Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint Research’s Associate Director, while the growth of the U.S in high-end segment was 10% year-on-year, the China grew 37% year-on-year. Other countries in which the high-end segment grew strongly comprise of Indonesia (up 54%), Russia (up 28%), Canada (22%), Mexico (22%), Thailand (up 22%), India (up 14%), Brazil (13%), and Japan (10%).