China rising, Korea struggling, Apple beats Android and more: 5 key takeaways from the Gartner report

A lot's been happening in the smartphone market. And India is witness to a meteoric rise in the adoption of mobility devices. Here are our five key takeaways from the latest Gartner report.1. The Chinese have arrived...It's official. With the rate at which Chinese smartphones are launched in India, and flash sales on Amazon and Flipkart being lapped up by eager consumers in India, we expected that. Besides, the obsession over value for money and price only gives more reason to opt for one of the popular Chinese brands.[caption id="attachment_264867" align="alignnone" width="640"] Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi has been popular with online shoppers in India.[/caption] According to Anshul Gupta, Gartner Research Director, "During the said quarter, local brands and Chinese vendors came out as the key winners (in smartphones) in emerging markets. These vendors recorded an average growth of 73 percent in smartphone sales and saw their combined share go up from 38 percent to 47 percent during the first quarter of 2015."2. ...and they're hurting the Koreans!As the saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. While the global markets have been embracing Chinese smartphones, it's all been Samsung's loss. The Korean giant continued to see a decline in sales and share during the first quarter of 2015 at 24.2 percent (81.1 million units) from 30.4 percent share (85.5 million units) of smartphone sales in the year-ago period. That's 4 million lesser smartphones in the quarter. Far greater than all BlackBerrys sold![caption id="attachment_255981" align="alignnone" width="640"] Samsung would need some more six appeal. Samsung Galaxy S6 image release by T-Mobile.[/caption]Gupta is optimistic with the Samsung Galaxy S6 though. He added, "we expect Samsung's drop rate to be slower than that seen in recent quarters with sales of its new S6 smartphones starting in the second quarter of 2015, and its Galaxy Alpha receiving good response."3. Oh the Apple of our eye!Only a couple of years ago, a fierce battle between Samsung and Apple and the rise of Android over iOS catapulted Samsung to a domineering position. However, the last quarter has thrown some surprising trends.[caption id="attachment_257573" align="alignnone" width="640"] Apple has been growing – bigger and stronger[/caption] Apple has retained its clout in the global smartphone market, more so in China. iPhone sales were up 72.5 percent (60.17 million units) during the first quarter of 2015. "Apple's extension into more Asian markets helped it close the gap with Samsung globally," Gupta said.4. Weakening AndroidIn the clash of operating system titans, Apple has had a consistently good year with year-on-year growth of 17.9 percent for the third consecutive quarter, according to the Gartner report.[caption id="attachment_264903" align="alignnone" width="640"] Oh boy, seems like the tides just changed! Image: Ahmad Babar's Facebook page[/caption]Android, on the other hand, lost by 1.9 percentage points of market share to 78.9 percent. This should trigger a host of consumer-friendly aggressive marketing by Android device manufacturers.5. Hopeful WindowsAlthough Microsoft hasn't been able to achieve much with Windows Phone, the future outlook with the Windows ecosystem is relatively optimistic.[caption id="attachment_250911" align="alignnone" width="640"] Could the large screen boost the small screen dreams for Windows?[/caption] According to Gupta, "The performance of Windows Phone (2.5 percent share) remained flat, mainly due to a weak ecosystem and a less desirable mobile brand, together with a strong and established competitive smartphone market." He added, "The upcoming Windows 10 will create a consistent user experience across all devices, but it remains to be seen whether developers will follow."With inputs from PTI