What Happend In Smartphone Industry In 2019? All Details You Should Know

2019 marks many important events of the tech world in general and smartphones in particular. If you are a person who follows the scene actively, you would probably remember all of this or do you? Let’s see all the things that happened in the smartphone world in the past year and find out.

January

As usual, the beginning of the year always begins with the Consumer Electronics Exhibition - CES. And there didn’t seem to be any significant announcements for smartphones this year.

In addition, January is also the time when two major brands Samsung and Xiaomi launched two products. Samsung announced the brand-new Galaxy M series, marking the transition of Samsung smartphones to the water-drop notch design.

Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 7 series with a powerful performance for a reasonable price. This is also a phone that pretty much set the standard for a budget smartphone. 

February

February was bustling with a series of notable events:

Samsung and Huawei, in turn, introduced their first two folding smartphones, Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. 

Continuing with the product launch tradition, February is also the time for Samsung to launch new offerings in the Galaxy S flagship series. This time, it was the Galaxy S10 lineup, including Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus, and Galaxy S10e. It also marked the first time Samsung released three models instead of two. Not just Samsung, several other phone makers also released their own flagship devices as well:

• LG announced the LG G8 ThinQ and LG V50 ThinQ - its first 5G smartphones.
• HMD Global released Nokia 9 PureView, which was the first phone to come with a penta-camera setup.
• Sony started a new design era with the launch of its Xperia 1 - a flagship with a tall and slim design.
• Motorola has launched four Moto G7 models around the world, solidifying its dominance in the budget segment.

March

March was also a very exciting month with a series of important events:

• Aside from the Galaxy M series, Samsung also revamped its Galaxy A series and the Galaxy A20 was the first one to be introduced in the lineup.
• Apple brought the new iPad Air, iPad Mini, AirPods with wireless charging covers, and the most surprising is the Apple Card. In addition, the company also announced a series of new services.
• Sony’s smartphone business faced a lot of difficulties in competing in the industry. Therefore, the company had to merge the smartphone division with TV, audio, and camera divisions to make up for the losses.
• Huawei released Huawei P30 Pro flagship with impressive camera setup and a good battery life.

April

April was not exciting at all. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A70 and Galaxy A80 in its revamped Galaxy A series. In particular, Galaxy A80 features a unique rotate camera system but this is not the product that the company paid the most attention at the time. Samsung was preparing to launch its first-ever foldable smartphone called Galaxy Fold at the end of the month. However, it seemed that they were still not ready to make it official due to some issues with both hinges and screens. And the company had to postpone the release date.

May

May was more interesting than April. The market has received some of the best smartphones this year in this month.

• OnePlus has released OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, a big step forward for OnePlus with a 90Hz bezel-less screen with curved edges.
• Google has released more affordable versions of the Pixel 3 lineup called Pixels 3a and Pixels 3a XL, providing the leading camera quality in the mid-range segment.
• Nubia released a gaming smartphone with an attractive design, Red Magic 3, at an amazing price of less than $500 (around Rs. 35,000).
• May was also a sad month for Huawei when it was subject to U.S. sanctions. Accordingly, Huawei was banned from accessing technology from US companies without the government's approval.

June

It started the summer but the market was pretty quiet. Only Xiaomi launched a new sub-brand called Mi CC, focusing on photography. This is a brand that has the cooperation of Xiaomi and Meitu, aiming for young female customers.

The company also showcased its new technology, under-display selfie camera. Oppo also revealed its own development of the technology. That raised high hopes that it would be an answer to the notch design that had been featured on a large number of smartphones. 

July

Samsung revealed a flagship device but this time it was the Galaxy Tab S6 tablet, promising to be one of the best tablets on the Android market. LG, meanwhile, released a cheaper version of the G8 ThinQ, the G8S ThinQ, with little attention.

August

Perhaps the race started to be more intense in August. Starting the month was the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series. This launch also marked an important turning point for the Galaxy Note series. It was the first time for the company to release two products for the Galaxy Note series, including the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+. Of course, the Galaxy Note 10+ got the most attention and became a good candidate for the best Android smartphone 2019. At that time, Samsung also released new upgraded versions of Galaxy A50 and A30, called Galaxy A30s and Galaxy A50s.

Besides, Motorola launched the Motorola One Action, focusing on camera features.

September

September is probably the month with the most events of the year when it comes to smartphones:

• Apple released iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. For the first time, an iPhone is equipped with 3 cameras, a super-wide shooting feature, and night mode. Especially, they also came with significant improvement in battery capacity.
• iOS 13 was also released for all iPhones since the iPhone 6S.
• The Apple Watch Series 5 also made its debut with an always-on display as its key highlight.
• In addition, OnePlus also joined the competition with the release of OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro. The OnePlus 7T was also packed a 90Hz display and a triple camera setup.
• Android 10 was released with many new features.
• Motorola launched the Motorola One Zoom.
• Huawei released its Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro without Google services.

October

• In October, Google was the market star with the launch of Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. The duo packed a 90Hz display, a new telephoto camera, radar technology for gesture movement and relatively low battery capacity. 
• Motorola decided to release some Moto G8 phones early, with more likely coming in early 2020.
• Apple released AirPods Pro, iFan's long-awaited headset with noise-canceling, and an expensive price tag of $250 (around Rs. 17,800). However, until now Apple has proved that the price always goes with quality.

November

• November had an interesting event about Motorola's nostalgic folding screen smartphone, the Motorola Razr for a hefty price of $1500.

• This month we also acknowledge Xiaomi's efforts with the Mi Cc9 Pro (the international version is called Mi Note 10), which is the world's first 108MP commercial smartphone.

December

In the last month of the year, smartphone makers usually focus on sales rather than product launches. However, this is a good time for chip makers to start releasing next-generation chipsets. At the Qualcomm Technology Summit, Snapdragon 865, Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G were announced, all of which support 5G connectivity.