We have been hearing for years that Apple is the ‘World’s Second Largest Smartphone Brand,’ and it was absolutely irking the smartphone haters to the core. Well, much to the dismay of iPhone fans, Apple is no longer the second largest! Huawei, which was previously on the third place, has now overtaken Apple’s global smartphone sales for the first time in the months of June and July.
Counterpoint Research, a consulting firm, conducted an analysis to disclose that the only company that is now beating Huawei in sales is Samsung. The sudden success of the company is attributed to its creative marketing strategies and consistent investment in research and development.
Counterpoint has suggested that the August sales for Huawei look quite strong, but no definite numbers have been disclosed yet. For a company like Huawei, beating Apple is quite an achievement. However, this may not be the case when Apple will finally release its super anticipated anniversary iPhone in a few days.
The research firm has pointed out that Huawei lacks its presence in the markets of South Asia, India, and North America, and it “limits Huawei’s potential to the near-to-mid-term to take a sustainable second place position behind Samsung.” Rising from China, the company has a very solid market not just in its own country but also in the great parts of Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Over the past few years, Huawei’s popularity has spiked due to its large display screens and improved camera functions, but that does not pose any threat to Apple’s presence. The world’s best selling smartphones are still the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with Oppo R11 and A57 standing at the third and fourth positions. Surprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S8 trails behind, followed by Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. Not a single phone in the top 10 list belongs to Huawei!
Pavel Naiya, the senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, mentioned in a statement,
“While Huawei climbed to be the world’s second largest brand overall, it is surprising to see none of its models breaking into the top rankings. 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.”
IDC reports that Apple shipped 41 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2017 while Huawei shipped 38.5 million only. Who is gonna stay at the top? Who will surpass whom? We will have to wait for the launch of the next iPhone to figure that out!