Smartphone Shipments Decline for First Time

　　SAN FRANCISCO — The number of smartphones sold declined on an annual basis in the fourth quarter of last year for the first time ever as the pace of upgrades slowed, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.

　　Anshul Gupta, a research director at Gartner, said in a statement that customers are choosing higher quality models and keeping them longer, lengthening the replacement cycle for smartphones. "Moreover, while demand for high quality, 4G connectivity and better camera features remained strong, high expectations and few incremental benefits during replacement weakened smartphone sales," Gupta said.

　　Roughly 408 million smartphones were sold to end users in the fourth quarter of 2017, down 5.6 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) said. It represented the first year-over-year decline in any quarter since Gartner began tracking the smartphone market in 2004, the firm said.

　　Despite a year-over-year unit decline of 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter, Samsung remained the No. 1 seller of smartphones worldwide, besting Apple. Samsung sold more than 74 million handsets, good for 18.2 percent of the overall market, Gartner said.

　　Meanwhile, Apple's iPhone shipments declined about 5 percent to about 73.2 million, good for about 17.9 percent of the market, Gartner said. Gupta said many new users bypassed the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to await the release of iPhone X, which was hampered by component shortages.

　　"We expect good demand for the iPhone X to likely bring a delayed sales boost for Apple in the first quarter of 2018," Gupta said.

　　Of the top five smartphone vendors worldwide, only Chinese vendors Huawei and Xiaomi experienced growth in the fourth quarter, according to Gartner.