S8, S8+ help Samsung shrug off Galaxy Note 7 fiasco effects

NEW DELHI: US-based advisory firm Gartner Tuesday said that there was a strong growth of 4G smartphones in the mid
-segment of emerging economies while Korean vendor Samsung's smartphonesales grew 7.5%, on year, after three consecutive quarterly drops.

"Global sales of smartphones totaled 366.2 million units in the second quarter of 2017, a 6.7% increase over the second quarter of 2016. Samsung's smartphone sales grew 7.5 percent, year over year," Gartner in a statement said.

The finding revealed that Samsung cornered a worldwide market share of 22.5%, followed by Cupertino-based Apple (12.1%) and Chinese Huawei (9.8%).

With smartphone giant Apple, all set to debut the iPhone 8 in September while rival Huawei too has plans to launch Mate 10 later this year, and are likely to make competition more intense.

Greater China and Asia Pacific remained top two regions constituting 27.7% and 21.4% of the overall global smartphone sales share in Q2, 2017.

"Although demand for utility smartphones remains strong, there is growing demand in emerging markets for 4G smartphones. This is translating into higher demand for midpriced ($150 to $200) smartphones," Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner said.

Samsung, according to Gartner, had been hit hard by problems with the Galaxy Note 7, but the Galaxy S8 and S8+ were bringing back high demand for smartphones.

"Despite growing competition from Chinese brands such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, we expect Samsung to register a growth in 2017," Gupta added.