Smartphone shipments in Malaysia dropped year-on-year in 2016 despite the market growing 7.8 per cent in Q4.

The top three players all posted double-digit gains in shipments through 2016, but weak performances by number four Asus and fifth ranked Apple led to a 5.9 per cent drop in shipments to 8.78 million units, according to IDC.

Samsung, on top with a 34 per cent market share (up 7 percentage points year-on-year), saw shipments rise 17 per cent in 2016 to 3.02 million units (see chart, click to enlarge). Oppo, posting the highest growth of 67 per cent, moved into second place with its market share jumping from 5.9 per cent in 2015 to 10.4 per cent last year. Huawei’s shipments increased just 6.6 million to 852,000, but its market share increased by 1.1 points to 9.7 per cent.

Asus, which was number two in 2015 with a near 16 per cent market share, suffered a 43 per cent decline in shipments to 842,000, giving it a 9.6 per cent share. Apple fell to fifth from third in 2015 after shipments fell 17 per cent to 715,000 in 2016. Its market share dropped by 1.2 percentage points to 8.1 per cent.

IDC expects vendors to streamline their model lineups as they attempt to move toward midrange and high-end devices to better manage their resources and stay relevant in the market. Meanwhile, the research firm said low-end devices catered to budget-conscious consumers will mainly be supplied by either operator brands or lesser known brands.

Prices of new releases are forecast to rise due to the impact of the weakening Malaysian ringgit against the US dollar, combined with other rising costs.