Samsung maintains Android dominance through H1

Samsung maintained its grip on the global Android smartphone market during the first half of 2016, holding the top three positions according to figures from Strategy Analytics.

In one of its regular updates on worldwide smartphone shipments, the research company revealed that Samsung’s Galaxy S7 edge was the best-selling Android smartphone in the opening six months of 2016, followed by the South Korean vendor’s Galaxy J2 and Galaxy S7 respectively.

Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said the company estimates that Samsung shipped 13.3 million Galaxy S7 edge smartphones during the period, meaning the model accounted for 2.3 per cent of all Android smartphones shipped. “The S7 edge is wildly popular in dozens of countries globally, due to its attractive curved hardware design blended with a sidebar of apps that consumers find easy to use,” Mawston noted.

Strategy Analytics estimates that some 13 million Galaxy J2 smartphones were sold during the opening half of 2016, and 11.8 million Galaxy S7s.

Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics, said that while Samsung remains the dominant vendor in the Android smartphone sector, the vendor “cannot rest on its laurels, because it continues to be chased hard by emerging rivals, such as the Huawei P9, Oppo R9, and Vivo X7 devices.”

The research company stated that Android remained the dominant platform in the global smartphone market in the first half of the year, and continues to outgrow iOS-based devices in terms of shipments.

Director Linda Sui said Android shipments increased 5 per cent year-on-year in the opening six months of 2016 to 577.3 million units. In contrast, iOS shipments declined 16 per cent year-on-year, from 108.7 million in the first half of 2015 to 91.6 million in the recent period.

Strategy Analytics recently noted that Apple’s share of the global smartphone market softened during the second calendar quarter of 2016 -- Apple’s fiscal third quarter. Mawston explained Apple is experiencing “iPhone fatigue among consumers” and that the company’s latest iPhone SE model had been unable “to stem that trend”.

For more:
- see this Strategy Analytics announcement

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