Huawei beats out Apple for second place in smartphone shipments

In quarter two of this year Chinese manufacturer Huawei moved into second place overtaking Apple in worldwide smartphone shipments according to data from IDC, Canalys, and Strategic Analytics.

	1 of 3
Huawei shipped over 54 million sets in this year's second quarter in comparison to only 41.3 million iPhones that Apple sold. However, Samsung shipped 73 million units beating both Apple and Huawei. IDC said in a press release: “The arrival of Huawei in the second position marks the first quarter since 2Q10 where Apple has not been the number one or two smartphone company in terms of market share."

Samsung had 20.9 percent of market share in the quarter, while Huawei had 15.8 percent a new record for the company. Apple had just 12.1 percent. Xiaomi and Oppo made up the rest. As Apple is set to release as many as three new iPhone models in September Huawei could return to third place.

Huawei's Honor brand brings big jump in sales

The big 41 percent jump in Huawei shipments from last year is in large part a result of the Honor brand. The IDC says that the Honor phones are a key driver in the growth of Huawei sales. Canalys estimates the brand accounts for two thirds of the nearly 16 million increase in shipments made by Huawei this quarter. Nearly 4 million Honor phones were shipped outside of China.

Even in the shipment of premium phones Huawei did well with its P20 and P20 Pro both showing strong demand during the quarter. In China Huawe led market share accounting for 27 percent of shipments. The US market contributes almost nothing to Huawei's sales success. Concerns of Chinese government spying have stopped any hope of the company growing US business or partnering with major US carriers. However, elsewhere, Huawei is making up for this loss.

Samsung continues to maintain its healthy lead in smartphone shipments at 73 million shipped during the quarter. However, the company acknowledged that demand for its flagship Galaxy S9 was slipping. The Galaxy Note 9 is expected to be released on August 9th but something more flashy might be needed to spark new consumer interest in the field. Huawei could beat Samsung to the punch.

Global market for smartphones is in decline

Overall the market for smartphones was in decline for the quarter: " According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone vendors shipped a total of 342.0 million units during the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18), resulting in a 1.8% decline when compared to the 348.2 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2017. The drop marks the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines for the global smartphone market and only the fourth quarter of decline in history. IDC believes this is the result of churn in some highly penetrated markets, although many high growth markets still exist and should return smartphone shipments to overall growth."

Previously published in Digital Journal