Telecom
Apple Leads Samsung, Huawei at the Worldwide Smartphone Market
Worldwide Smartphone Market statistics has shown that Apple has overtaking Samsung to the Top Position of Smartphone Market, While Overall Shipments Decline 6.3% in the Fourth Quarter of 2017.
A slower than expected 2017 holiday quarter closed out the year bringing minimal change to the worldwide smartphone market when compared to 2016.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC) preliminary data from the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone vendors shipped a total of 403.5 million units during the fourth quarter of 2017 (4Q17), resulting in a 6.3% decline when compared to the 430.7 million units shipped in the final quarter of 2016.
For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market saw a total of 1.472 billion units shipped, declining less than 1% from the 1.473 billion units shipped in 2016.
Developed markets such as China and the United States both witnessed a decline during the quarter as consumers appeared to be in no rush to upgrade to the newest generation of higher-priced flagship devices.
Anthony Scarsella, research manager, Mobile Phones at IDC, said “The latest flock of posh flagships may have had consumers hitting the pause button in the holiday quarter”.
“With ultra-high-end flagships all the rage in 2017, many of these new bezel-less wonders proved to be more of a luxury than a necessity among upgraders.
Even though we have seen new full-screen displays, advanced biometrics, and improved artificial intelligence, the new and higher price points could be outweighing the benefits of having the latest and greatest device in hand.”
Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said “In the presence of ultra-high-end flagships, the still high-priced flagships from the previous generation seemed far more palatable to consumers in 2017.”
“Many high-profile companies offered their widest product portfolio ever in hopes of capturing a greater audience.
“Meanwhile, brands outside the top 5 struggled to maintain momentum as value brands such as Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi, and OPPO offered incredible competition at the low end, and brands like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei maintained their stronghold on the high end.”
Smartphone Vendor Highlights shows that Apple experienced a slight downturn from the previous holiday quarter as iPhone volumes reached 77.3 million units, a year-over-year decline of 1.3%.
Volumes were still enough to push Apple past Samsung and back into first place in the smartphone market, largely because of iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X.
Apple continues to prove that having numerous models at various price points bodes well for bringing smartphone owners to iOS.
Although demand for the new higher priced iPhone X may not have been as strong as many expected, the overall iPhone lineup appealed to a wider range of consumers in both emerging and developed markets.
Apple finished second for the full year in 2017 shipping 215.8 million units, up 0.2% from the 215.4 million units shipped in 2016.
Samsung remained the overall leader in the worldwide smartphone market for 2017 despite losing out to Apple in the fourth quarter.
The Korean giant shipped 74.1 million units in 4Q17, down 4.4% compared to the 77.5 million units from last year.
Samsung finished the year with 317.3 million shipments, up 1.9% from the 311.4 million shipments in 2016.
Despite the failure of the Note 7 combined with the endless collective pressure from Chinese players along with Apple, Samsung has managed to remain on top through thick and thin.
The pending arrival of their next flagship, the Galaxy S9, may represent the brand’s best chance of winning over both new and current customers in 2018.
Huawei continues to hold the number three position despite intensified competition from growing Chinese players such as OPPO and Vivo.
Huawei shipped 41.0 million units, down 9.7% from the 45.4 million shipped in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The 2017 results look much better for the Chinese giant as the Honor brand helped pushed sales both inside and outside of China.
Huawei shipped 153.1 million units, up 9.9% from the 139.3 million unit shipped in 2016.
The Mate series and Honor sub-brand continued to drive crucial volume in numerous markets, while the Y series thrived at the low-end.
Recent aspirations for breaking into the U.S. market are on hold as both AT&T and Verizon recently cut ties to bring Huawei flagships to the U.S.
Entering the U.S. through an official carrier remains critical for Huawei if it wishes to eventually dethrone market leaders Apple and Samsung.
Xiaomi managed to double its share to 7% from 3.3% during the holiday quarter last year.
This comes as no surprise since the company has continued to focus on growth outside China, with India and Russia being two of its largest markets.
The company has been expanding its number of Mi Stores and Mi Service Centers, with fast buildout coming in markets like Indonesia.
It also appointed Lazada to be the official online store and partnered with Indosat to offer a telco bundling package, where consumers can get Xiaomi’s smartphone for free by purchasing a data package for a one-year period.
In India, Xiaomi also launched Redmi Y-series in India and roped in Bollywood celebrity Katrina Kaif to endorse the selfie-centric smartphone series as its first product endorser.
The Redmi 5A, which was launched at US$78, saw more than a million devices being sold within a month.
The brand continued to expand its retail presence by adding more preferred partners, launching new Mi stores, and partnering with large format retail stores.
OPPO dropped one place to the 5th position as the company shipped 27.4 million smartphones while managing to maintain 12% growth for the full year, amounting to 111.8 million smartphones.
Like Xiaomi, OPPO has also managed to move beyond the domestic Chinese market and gain a foothold in other Asian countries like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
In Indonesia, it launched the new F5 series in 4Q17 and also announced its partnership with AOV, a MOBA game.
It ran a “selfie campaign” tour in many big cities in Indonesia to promote the AI feature in its selfie camera.
In India, it continued to invest in celebrity endorsements and events.
However, it faced a slight decline as it made some changes to its channel strategy by being more selective about its retail partners.
Users of satellite internet service provider Starlink in Nigeria are being required to complete a biometric Know Your Customer (KYC) process as a precondition to continue enjoying their services, according to .biometricupdate.
According to local reports, more than 66,000 Starlink subscribers in the country had a December 31 ultimatum from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to complete the biometric verification or have their connection discontinued.
The process essentially entails linking a Starlkink account with the subscriber’s national digital ID.
The NCC, which is Nigeria’s telecoms industry regulator, is said to have first issued the directive in August last year, setting a three-month deadline which was to elapse on November 19, TechCabal reports.
The body however later extended it to December 31 after consultations with industry stakeholders. The internet account-NIN linkage, the NCC said, is to enhance identity verification and strengthen security within the country’s telecoms space.
Just a few days to the December 31 deadline, Starlink’s Nigeria office sent an email to its subscribers reminding them of the KYC requirement, and warned that all those who fail to comply would be disconnected.
And that once disconnected, reconnection would depend on network capacity in the concerned area.
The service provider said in its email that the process takes less than two minutes and users can complete it by logging in to their account via an app.
One user, quoted by TechCabal, said one needs to upload their selfie biometrics, provide their national identification number (NIN) and then give their consent for the account to be linked to their ID information.
Starlink’s internet service is present in about 155 countries with nine million users, as of 2025. Its growth in Nigeria is said to be rapid, making it the second largest internet service provider in the country, according to The Traffic.
Biometric identification for Starlink subscribers could become a continent-wide trend given that some countries have expressed reservations in opening up their internet space to the company over security concerns.
There’ve been fears that jihadists in countries like Mali and Nigeria may have exploited Starlink terminals to coordinate terror operations, and cybersecurity experts have also warned of risks related to weak regulation, digital sovereignty and data breaches.
The requirement for Starlink internet users to have their accounts linked with the NIN is similar to the SIM-NIN linkage policy which the Nigerian government battled to implement for many years, with many deadline extensions.
In October last year, the NCC, which is was at the forefront of the policy implementation, announced that all active SIM cards across all network providers had complied with the directive which was issued in 2020.
The idea, the federal government argued, was to strengthen security and curb criminality such as kidnappings which are aided and abetted by improperly identified mobile phone numbers.
Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has urged Northern Nigeria to pivot urgently from traditional commerce to an innovation-driven digital economy for sustainable growth.
NITDA
Inuwa issued the call at the Future Map Foundation Roundtable 1.0 (North-West Edition) in Kano, attributing the region’s sluggish digital adoption not to talent deficits but to the lack of deliberate, coordinated strategies.
He stressed deeper collaboration across academia, private sector players, entrepreneurs, and government, positioning the private sector as the primary innovation engine while government supplies robust policies and an enabling ecosystem.
Inuwa advocated for people-focused, locally tailored innovations that tackle regional challenges head-on, enabling global competitiveness by transitioning from mere technology users to creators of homegrown solutions.
The roundtable convened policymakers, tech founders, and ecosystem stakeholders to forge a comprehensive roadmap for North-West digital transformation, yielding firm commitments to bolster regional innovation policies and public-private synergies.
Inuwa’s push dovetails seamlessly with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which sets an ambitious target of 95 per cent nationwide digital literacy by 2030, fostering inclusive economic empowerment.
Participants hailed the forum as a pivotal step toward unlocking Northern Nigeria’s tech potential, with NITDA poised to lead implementation through strategic interventions and partnerships.
Samsung Electronics plans to double this year the number of its mobile devices with “Galaxy AI” features largely powered by Google’s Gemini, its co-CEO said, which would give the U.S. firm an edge over rivals as the global race in artificial intelligence heats up.
The South Korean company, which had rolled out Gemini-backed AI features to about 400 million mobile products, including smartphones and tablets, by last year, plans to boost that figure to 800 million in 2026.
“We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible,” T M Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming Samsung Electronics co-CEO in November.
The plan by the world’s largest backer of Google’s Android mobile platform is set to give a major boost to its developer Google, which is locked in a race with OpenAI and others to attract more consumer users to their AI model.
Samsung seeks to reclaim its lost crown from Apple in the smartphone market and fend off competition from Chinese rivals not only in mobile telephones, but televisions and home appliances, all overseen by Roh.
It will offer integrated AI services across consumer products to widen its lead over Apple in such features, though the latter was set to be the top smartphone maker last year, according to market researcher Counterpoint.
AI Race
Alphabet’s Google launched the latest version of Gemini in November, highlighting Gemini 3’s lead on several popular industry measures of AI model performance.
In response to Gemini 3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red,” pausing non-core projects and redirecting teams to accelerate development. The ChatGPT maker launched its GPT-5.2 AI model a few weeks later.
Roh expects the adoption of AI to accelerate, as Samsung’s surveys on awareness of its Galaxy AI brand jumped to a level of 80% from about 30% in just one year.
“Even though the AI technology might seem a bit doubtful right now, within six months to a year, these technologies will become more widespread,” he said.
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