Apple’s Smartphone Lead Over Huawei Falls Below 5%

[cnxvideo id=”655416″ placement=”ros”]The global market for new smartphones in 2017 is forecast to reach 1.44 billion units, with the top six vendors accounting for more than 70% of the volume. Market leader Samsung Electronics is expected to see a slight decline from 22.7% share in 2016 to 22.6%, and second-place Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is forecast to see a similar share drop, from 15.8% to 15.7%.

The third-ranked smartphone maker, Huawei, is pegged to see market share rise from 10.2% in 2016 to 11.7%, just four points behind Apple. Two more China-based vendors are also poised for share gains: fourth-ranked Oppo held a 7.1% share in 2016 and its share is expected to rise to 8.3%, while fifth-ranked BBK/Vivo is expected to see an increase in its market share from 6.0% last year to 7.0% this year. Sixth-ranked LG Electronics is expected to grab a 5.5% share in 2017, flat year over year.

The data were released Friday by Taiwan-based research firm TrendForce just ahead of this year’s Mobile World Congress set to open Monday in Barcelona.

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In the smartphone market, the Chinese makers of cheap smartphones are the winners, although most of their gains are coming from small manufacturers, which combined for 32.8% of the market in 2016 but will only nab 29.1% of the 2017 market.

TrendForce has also forecast that year-over-year shipments of tablets will decline by 6.1%, from 157.4 million units in 2016 to 147.8 million units this year. The top seven vendors and their comparative market share totals are:

• Apple: 27.0% share in 2016; 26.6% share in 2017
• Samsung: 17.2% share in 2016; 16.8% share in 2017
• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): 7.0% share in 2016; 7.8% share in 2017
• Lenovo: 6.9% share in 2016; 6.8% share in 2017
• Huawei: 6.2% share in 2016; 7.2% share in 2017
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 2.5% share in 2016; 1.9% share in 2017
• Asus: 2.2% share in 2016; 2.2% share in 2017

The clear forecast winners in tablet market share are Huawei (up 1% year over year) and Amazon, with an increase of 0.8% year over year. Their gains come at the expense of the two leaders and Microsoft. The tablet category does not include two-in-one type PCs.

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