Move Aside, Apple! Huawei Is Now The 2nd Largest Smartphone Maker In The World
It's the first time in seven years that Apple is not in the top two.
By Andrea Tang — 02 Aug 2018, 05:37 PM
In a surprising turn of events, a competitor has risen to overtake Apple as the second largest smartphone vendor in the world. Its name… is Huawei.
As of the end of Q2 2018, Huawei has surpassed Apple as one of the top two smartphone sellers in the world. Samsung retained its top spot, while Apple dropped to third place.
In Q2 alone, Huawei shipped over 12 million more handsets than Apple
According to a report by Canalys, the China-based brand had a 41% increase in their year-on-year growth with 54 million units shipped, with Apple getting only a 1% increase with 41.3 million units shipped. Despite being the top vendor of Q2, Samsung had an 8% decrease in their year-on-year growth having shipped 73 million units in Q2.
Experts attributed Huawei's success to their great brand recognition in Asia and Europe as well as their growth strategies
Huawei makes high-end smartphones that rival those from Apple as well as Samsung, despite being locked out of the US market.
Strong sales numbers of their current flagship, the P20 and P20 Pro - which introduces the triple Leica camera - played a big part in propelling Huawei to the second spot.
Huawei's more affordable range, Honor, also did incredibly well beyond the China market
Despite its brand recognition being small and weak in the previous quarter, Huawei shipped close to four million Honor-branded smartphones globally in Q2, increasing 150% on their year-on-year growth.
However, experts pointed out that things might turn around in Apple’s favour in Q3
The tech giant historically does not do well in Q2, as it only releases new models around September. Huawei, on the other hand, constantly releases new models throughout the year.
Hence, Apple is expected to overtake Huawei in the next quarter due to the expected spike in sales for their new releases.