A recent preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that in the last quarter the smartphone giant Huawei pumped out more smartphones than any company in the world, other than Samsung. According to data from IDC, Canalys, and Strategy Analytics, Huawei overtook Apple and moved up into second place in market share of worldwide smartphone shipments in Q2 2018.
Samsung is still the top smartphone vendor with 73 million shipments despite dropping 8% in shipments while Apple fell to third, shipping 41 million iPhones and growing 1% year-on-year.
Huawei has been consistently bringing smartphones with premium quality, best technology, and designs to the market. Huawei has increasingly gained popularity and positive feedback from global consumers. The Chinese tech major shipped 54 million handsets, up 41% year-on-year, confirmed research firm Canalys reported.
In a press release, Huawei attributed this to its strong position in China with a 27% market share. The company had good sales of its latest flagships, P20/ Pro, with more than 7 million units shipped worldwide. Mid-tiers such as the Nova-series were wildly popular in Asia and Europe which was a big contributing factor as well. At Huawei, over 10% of revenue is invested in R&D every year. In the year 2017, its R&D investment was ranked 6th among all the tech giants globally.
“Huawei has accelerated its adoption of new technologies this year, focusing on AI with its NPU chipsets and on imaging with its triple-camera setup. The strategy has evolved significantly over the last six months,” said Mo Jia, Canalys Analyst based in Shanghai. “Honor, which has long been a major brand in China but relatively small overseas, has taken a pivotal role in this strategy.”
Analysts found that while Apple’s smartphone shipments grew, but not as fast as Huawei and its fellow Chinese company Xiaomi. Huawei’s continued growth is impressive, considering it’s largely locked out of the US market. However, that doesn’t mean that the pressure on market leaders will fade anytime soon. If anything, smaller players like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are increasingly positioning themselves as competitors.
A major challenge facing Huawei is its connections to the Chinese government. The defense departments of the US and Australia don’t allow personnel to use the Huawei’s phones. Intelligence officials have raised concerns about whether data stored on the company’s devices/ networks might be accessed by government agents. Huawei is currently trying to convince the Australian government that it can be trusted to build and manage the next major roll-out of the country’s wireless infrastructures.
Also read: Samsung’s ‘unbreakable’ OLED display gets certified
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