Huawei becomes 2nd-largest smartphone company, overtakes Apple

When Apple is all near to launch its next iPhone along with the probable iPhone 8, we hear that the Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei has overtaken Apple in overall smartphone sales across the globe – report suggests.

According to “Market Pulse for July 2017” – a new research report from Counterpoint, Huawei has surpassed Apple in global smartphone sales consistently for June and July.

The report also suggests that the Chinese smartphone maker is showing strong sales in August as well. It’s noted that the company may surprise with a hat-trick. “a hat-trick for Huawei could be on the cards.” However first spot is retained by the Korean giant – Samsung.

“This is a significant milestone for Huawei, the largest Chinese smartphone brand with a growing global presence. 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. The global scale Huawei has been able to achieve can be attributed to its consistent investment in R&D and manufacturing, coupled with aggressive marketing and sales channel expansion.” – said Peter Richardson, Research Director at Counterpoint.

Global Market Share: June 2015 – July 2017

The report also listed top 10 best selling smartphones in the month of July. According to the report, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus captured the first two spots with 4% and 2.9% respectively, followed by Oppo R11 and A57 as third and fourth.

“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.” – highlighted the Senior Analyst, Pavel Naiya.

Global Smartphone Model Sales: July 2017

“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 ten rankings.” – said Mr Naiya.

He further stated, “This is 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; something Huawei badly needs if it is continue to gain share. 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.”