The Australian mobile phone market declined for its sixth straight quarter of down 8.2% YoY to 2.06m mobile phones.
International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showed 1.96m were smartphones and the rest were feature phones. Q3 was the saviour of 2016 – sales numbers were looking grim, yet despite the recall of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 it was up 12.6% over Q2.
The prepaid and outright sale market saw a rise in shipments in the low/mid-priced bracket from vendors Alcatel, Huawei, Motorola, and OPPO as these establish a footprint in Australia.
Bilal Javed, Market Analyst at IDC Australia, said, “Apple continue to reign the smartphone market in Australia as they grew market share to 46.4% riding on the momentum of their new iPhone 7 launch in September. Despite the launch, Apple still experienced a 0.3% decline YoY highlighting the struggles of the overall smartphone in Australia market as demand flattens. As the market matures, incremental innovation will not be enough to drive positive results as consumers believe the added features do not warrant an upgrade, especially in the high-priced segment.”
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The Galaxy Note 7 recall dented Samsung’s push to go head-to-head with Apple. Samsung, largely on the highly successful S7/S7 Edge fell from 32.9% in Q2 to 26%. (Note: IDC's totals for Samsung exclude Galaxy Note 7 shipments – its share would have been much higher).
Alcatel continued to consolidate devices in the low-price segment and grew to just over 6%. Low-priced devices available exclusively through operators allows them to branch out and reach a wider audience.
ZTE, mainly sold via Telcos, gained 5.2% share of the market as it increase channel partners with the aim of gaining in the low-price market or “disposables” for travellers.
Huawei continues to invest in the Australian market with large volumes of low-priced (<A$150) devices such as the Y3II and Y6 Elite being shipped through exclusive telco operators.
Q4 will be interesting as Apple gain momentum with iPhone 7; Google tries to win with its Pixel/XL, and low/mid-priced devices drive Xmas sales.
