Global sales from cellphone exports by country totaled US$283 billion in 2018.
Overall, the value of worldwide cellphone shipments rose by an average 4.6% for all exporting countries since 2014 when exported cellphones were valued at $270.6 billion. Year over year, export sales of cellphones appreciated by 2.1% from 2017 to 2018.
From a continental perspective, Asia was responsible for over three-quarters (77.6%) of all mobile phones exported during 2018. In second place was Europe at 18.1%, trailed by North American cell phone exporters at 4%. Smaller percentages originated from Oceania (0.2%) led by Australia, Africa (0.1%) then Latin America (0.04%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
The 6-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 851712 for telephones for cellular networks or other wireless networks.
Cellphone Exports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that sold the most mobile phones on international markets during 2018.
- China: US$141.7 billion (50.1% of exported mobile phones)
- Hong Kong: $31.4 billion (11.1%)
- Vietnam: $30.1 billion (10.6%)
- Netherlands: $19.1 billion (6.7%)
- United States: $10.5 billion (3.7%)
- Czech Republic: $6.5 billion (2.3%)
- South Korea: $6.1 billion (2.2%)
- Germany: $5.3 billion (1.9%)
- Austria: $4.8 billion (1.7%)
- Singapore: $4.7 billion (1.6%)
- Slovakia: $4.7 billion (1.6%)
- Sweden: $2.1 billion (0.7%)
- Thailand: $1.9 billion (0.7%)
- Italy: $1.8 billion (0.6%)
- United Kingdom: $1.3 billion (0.4%)
The listed 15 countries shipped 96% of global cellphone exports in 2018 by value.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing mobile phones exporters since 2014 were: Thailand (up 267.7%), Czech Republic (up 126.1%), Italy (up 102.4%) and Hong Kong (up 44.9%).
Four top exporters posted declines in their mobile phones sales namely: United Kingdom (down -55.1%), South Korea (down -51%), United States (down -6.1%) and Germany (down -3.8%).
Global Cellphone Making Companies
The following companies are among the top global companies that manufacture mobile phones.
- Huawei (China)
- Lenovo Group (Hong Kong)
- Xiaomi Tech (China)
- ZTE (China)
- Panasonic (Japan)
- Philips (Netherlands)
- Samsung Electronics (South Korea)
- Acer (Taiwan)
- Apple (United States)
- BLU Products (United States)
- FT Group’s F-Mobile (Vietnam)
- Bullitt Group (United Kingdom)
- Microsoft Mobile (United States)
- Google Nexus (United States)
- Blackberry (Canada)
According to Gartner, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics had a 21.9% market share of worldwide smartphone sales as of June 2015. In second place is the faster-growing American rival Apple which captured a 14.2% market share. Chinese companies Huawei (7.8%), Lenova Group (5%) and Xiaomi Tech (4.9%) collectively accounted for a 17.7% share.
Other mobile phone makers represent a 45.9% portion of global smartphone sales, up from 44.6% in the second quarter of 2014.
Source: worldstopexports.com