Chinese smartphone manufacturers continue their push for world domination and have finally, thanks to Hauwei Technologies, been able to beat out Samsung in sales growth. The large yet relatively unknown company to westerners also managed to outsell Lenovo, the third largest smartphone supplier in the world.
Huawei, known for its smartphones, has gone unfazed by a recent slowdown in the market in China, while both Xiaomi and Lenovo have shown solid growth globally throughout the second quarter highlighting the different strategies of China’s tech titans.
IDC, a research firm, has recently shown data reflecting that Huawei, who is China’s largest manufacturer of telecom equipment, showed an increase in its shipments of smartphones throughout the quarter by 48.1 percent to 29.9 million units, an increase of 20.2 million units for the same period last year.
Huawei, which is based in Shenzhen, was able to last quarter move past Lenovo in rank as the third largest smartphone supplier in the world, consuming an astonishing 8.9 percent of the worldwide market share, behind strong sales throughout Europe, according to the IDC report.
Xiaomi, a quickly growing smartphone start-up run by an ex-Googler saw an increase in its shipments of 29.4 percent to 17.9 million units, an increase of 13.8 million from this time last year.
It was able to burst into the top-five ranking last quarter, as well as fly past Lenovo, all while obtaining 5.3 percent share as the fourth-largest supplier of smartphones in the world.
IDC also stated that Xiaomi was able to continue selling well throughout mainland China, all while still increasing its presence throughout Singapore, Indonesia and India.
Lenovo, after acquiring Motorola Mobility last year, was able to increase its global shipments of smartphones by 2.4 percent throughout the second quarter to 16.2 million units, up 15.8 million from this time last year.
This was a significant enough increase for Lenovo to grab 4.8 percent of the global market share and become fifth in ranks of the leading smartphone brands in the world. Lenovo had been ranked third last year at the same time.
IDC stated that Lenovo’s Motorola brand has been able to grow in countries throughout North America and Europe regardless of tough competition.
The company’s Lenovo-brand of smartphones have seen an increase in demand on online sites in newer markets such as India.
“While the Chinese players are clearly making gains this quarter, every quarter sees new brands joining the market,” according to senior research manager of IDC’s mobile phone team, Melissa Chau.
“IDC now tracks over 200 different smartphone brands globally, many of them focused on entry level and mid-range models, and most with a regional or even single-country focus.”
IDC also says all smartphone shipments throughout the second quarter increased by 11.6 percent to 337.2 million units, an increase from 302.1 million the year prior year.
Last quarter saw Samsung Electronics remaining the worldwide market leader; however, its shipments of smartphones dropped 2.3 percent to 73.2 units, a decrease from 74.9 the same time the prior year.
Apple was able to see an increase in demand because of its larger screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with its second quarter shipments increasing 34.9 percent to 47.5 million units, an increase from 35.2 million the same time last year.
“The overall growth of the smartphone market was not only driven by the success of premium flagship devices from Samsung, Apple, and others, but more importantly by the abundance of affordable handsets that continue to drive shipments in many key markets,” according to Anthony Scarsella, IDC research manager.
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