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Huawei Surpasses Apple in Global Smartphone Sales in Third Quarter
September 11, 2017

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Pulse for July 2017, Huawei has surpassed Apple in global smartphone sales consistently for June and July. With August sales looking strong for the Chinese vendor, Huawei will be #2 in smartphone sales. Counterpoint’s Research Director Peter Richardson, notes, “It speaks volumes for this primarily network infrastructure vendor on how far it has grown in the consumer mobile handset space in the last three to four years.”  Richardson adds, “While this streak could be temporary considering the annual iPhone refresh, it nevertheless underscores the rate at which Huawei has been growing despite a weak presence in the South Asian, Indian and North American markets. Huawei is over-dependent on its home market where it enjoys the leadership position and operator-centric markets in Europe, Latin America and Middle East.”

Figure 1: July 2017: Global Smartphone Sales Share (%)

Source: Counterpoint
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Counterpoint’s Associate Director, Tarun Pathak, notes,  “Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have successfully gained access to key supply chain partners, which has allowed them to launch designs with bezel-free, full displays, Augmented Reality, in-house chipsets and advanced camera features, that have kept them toe-to-toe with rivals. These players have become as equally important as Samsung or Apple to the global supply chain, application developers and distribution channels, as they continue to grow in scale more rapidly than the incumbent market share leaders.” “Apple continued to drive its flagship momentum with iPhone 7 & 7 Plus; still the world’s best-selling models. OPPO has been one of the fastest growing brands globally thanks to the popularity of models including the flagship OPPO R11 and the mid-tier OPPO A57 that captured third and fourth spots respectively. These were followed by Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X and Samsung Galaxy S8+. Apple’s 32GB refresh of the venerable iPhone 6 enabled it to regain momentum during the month, with popularity across prepaid markets to edge out Samsung’s Galaxy J7. Mr. Naiya added. “While Huawei climbed to be the world’s second largest brand overall, none of its models breaking into the top ten rankings, due to a multiple SKU portfolio that currently lacks a true hero device. While having a diverse portfolio allows Huawei to fight on multiple fronts, it does little to build overall brand recognition. While Huawei has trimmed its portfolio, it likely needs to further streamline its product range like Oppo and Xiaomi have done – putting more muscle behind fewer products.”
 
Figure 2: July 2017: Global Smartphone Sales Share by Model

Source: Counterpoint