• by Chuck Martin , January 30, 2019

In the fourth quarter, smartphone shipments declined 5% from the previous year, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

This is the fifth consecutive quarter of decline, with shipments totaling 375 million devices.

The holiday quarter closes out the worst year ever for smartphone shipments with overall volume down 4% with 1.4 billion units shipped for the full year, according to IDC.

“Globally, the smartphone market is a mess right now," stated Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Outside of a handful of high-growth markets like India, Indonesia, Korea and Vietnam, we did not see a lot of positive activity in 2018. We believe several factors are at play here, including lengthening replacement cycles, increasing penetration levels in many large markets, political and economic uncertainty and growing consumer frustration around continuously rising price points."

Shipments in China, which accounts for about 30% of the world’s smartphone consumption, were down more than 10%.

Market share leaders for the quarter were Samsung, Apple and Huawei.