Key Takeaways:

• Global Handset Sell-in & Sell-Through Declines
  • Sell-through improved in all regions including USA, Europe and Japan. However, China and India were weak.
  • India, in particular, had a big drop in feature phones as brands like Jio fell to 1.5 million units per month. China and India being the big two markets, this pulled down the global sell through for handsets.
  • Sell in also fell slightly due to higher inventory levels of Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO in the previous months.
• Apple, Samsung and Huawei Register Decline in Sell-Through
  • Apple declined 2% MoM and 5% YoY. iPhone 11 model accounted for more than 33% of Apple volumes during the month.
  • Samsung declined 3.6% MoM and 0.6% YoY. It remained strong in the domestic market with premium flagships and 5G variants. In other APAC markets, it is now pushing its inventory in offline channels with promotions and discounts.
  • Huawei declined 6.3% MoM but remained marginally higher on a YoY basis. Huawei sell-through in China declined while it gained marginally in EU and APAC markets. Demand for mid-range category marginally shifted towards Oppo and Vivo in China. Promotions in online channels remained strong especially for Nova 5 series.
• Apple Maintains Stronghold in Ultra-Premium & Premium Price Band
  • In the ultra-premium price band ($800+), the top four best-selling models accounted for more than 80% of total sell-through. Overall sell-through in this price band increased by 4% MoM. Sell-through of Apple flagships increased further despite the end of promotions after the Black Friday sales.
  • Sell-through in premium ($600-$799) price band also increased marginally by 1.1% MoM. This was driven by Huawei with some contribution by OnePlus. Samsung remained weak as compared to previous month in this price band. LG gained with the G8X ThinQ.

Table of Contents: 

• Key Takeaways
• Global Mobile Handset Market Analysis
• Country-Level Smartphone Market Analysis
• Global Hardware Feature Analysis
• Global Hit Model Analysis

Author: Hanish Bhatia
Number of Pages: 39
Published Date: January 2020