The global smartphone market had a really bad year in 2018, with overall shipments estimated at “only” 1.4 billion units by the International Data Corporation, representing a substantial decline of around 4 percent from the 2017 result approximated by the same research firm. While things haven’t been quite as bad in the first two quarters of 2019, the mobile industry couldn’t find its way back to growth, posting a horrendous 6.6 percent drop during the January – March timeframe followed by a much smaller 2.3 percent contraction between April and June.
