• Premium ($600-$799) and Ultra-Premium ($800 & Above) price segment continues to perform well. Flagship devices from top OEMs are driving volumes for the smartphone vendors, especially in the case of Apple and Samsung. Apple’s new flagships accounted for ~60% of its’ sell-through for the month of October, while Samsung flagships contributed 20% to total handset sell-through for the Korean firm. Galaxy Note 9 remained the star in $600-$799 price band.
• Industry embarks the festive season across regions, starting October. October sees the start of a series of substantial sales opportunities that run through to the end of December, including Diwali in India, Singles Day in China, and Black Friday & Cyber Monday which have now become a global event. A record 21 Million smartphones were sold during the Indian festive season*, with 51% contribution from online channels. Single‘s Day sales estimates were ~ $308bn, with 11% contribution from mobile phones.
• Global sell-in increased 8% MoM in October preparation for Q4 sales. However, it declined 0.5% on YoY basis. Apple’s sell-in also rose in select countries. Sell through increased 5% MoM in October to 166 million units. Sell through in US, India, EU and LATAM improved. China remained flat with marginal decline (0.8% MoM) for the month of October. Channel inventory finally picked up, anticipating strong sales in Q4 2018.
• During October 2018, Apple sell-through increased 14% MoM and 6% YoY basis. This was driven by the performance of its flagship models, including the iPhone XR. Samsung registered 12% MoM growth after the two-month consecutive decline, however, it declined 16% on YoY basis. It peaked in October 2017 last year, and since then its global sell-through has been declining. Huawei and Xiaomi sell-through increased MoM basis, while Vivo and Oppo declined.

 Table of Contents:

• Global Market Status
  • Market Sizing – Demand & Supply/Price band
  • Market Share – Vendor/Price band
• Major Country Landscape
  • US Market Landscape
  • China Market Landscape
  • India Market Landscape
• Trends in Features and Specs
• Hardware trends and feature adoption rates
  • Average feature sets
  • Vendor market share by feature set
• Hit Model Analysis
• Monthly Research Topic
  • Highlights from India Smartphone Festive Season Analysis, China Single’s Day, US Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales