Worldwide smartphone shipments up 7 percent over previous quarter

Analysts from GfK have tracked a total of 353 million smartphones shipped worldwide as of Q3 2016 to represent a 7 percent increase in shipments during Q2 2016. The growth can be largely attributed to strong Chinese smartphone manufacturers and their hastening expansions throughout other regions.

GfK is also claiming total smartphone sales to be 104 billion USD as of Q3 2016 to represent a 4 percent growth QoQ and a 9 percent growth YoY. For the full 2016 calendar year, the firm is predicting about 1.4 billion smartphones sold to represent a 7 percent increase over 2015. China alone could grow as much as 15 percent when comparing the same time frames.

As for 2017, the firm is expecting an overall slower worldwide growth rate of 3 percent YoY with a slight drop of 3 percent in China as manufacturers there reach closer to saturation. Major Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and Xioami are attempting to reach out to the North American market with official launches and releases. The Honor 8, for example, enjoyed an official reveal in San Francisco during the week of IDF 2016.

Estimates from other market analysts show Samsung claiming over 22 percent of the smartphone market prior to the Galaxy Note 7 disaster.

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