Huawei Could Pass Apple as World’s No. 2 Smartphone Company

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) management looks over its shoulder, it will see someone is gaining on it. That would be Chinese smartphone company Huawei, which nearly caught Apple in global third-quarter sales, according to new research.

That research:

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew 5 percent annually to reach 393 million units in Q3 2017. Samsung maintained first position with 21 percent global smartphone marketshare, while Apple held steady at 12 percent share. Xiaomi was the star performer, almost doubling its smartphone shipments from a year ago.

Huawei’s global market share reached 9.9%. At its current growth rate, it could challenge Apple for the number two position, although massive iPhone 8 and iPhone X sales may prevent that. However, the researchers say these sales may not be enough. Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, said:

Huawei maintained third position with 10 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q3 2017, up from 9 percent in Q3 2016. Huawei continues to close in fast on Apple and the battle for second place in the smartphone market will be tight next year. Huawei is performing well across Asia, Europe and Africa with popular Android models such as the P10 and Nova 2.

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Two other Chinese companies also did particularly well in the third quarter. While Samsung’s market share reached 21.2%, up from 20.1% in the same period last year, Apple’s fell from 12.1% to 11.9%. But OPPO’s rose from 5.8% to 8.0% and Xiaomi’s from 3.9% to 7.9%.

Apple says it has to do well in China to reach its long-term goals. In the meantime, three Chinese companies are successfully chasing it worldwide.

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments and Marketshare in Q3 2017

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units) Q3 ’16 Q3 ’17
Samsung 75.3 83.4
Apple 45.5 46.7
Huawei 33.6 39.1
OPPO 21.6 31.4
Xiaomi 14.5 27.7
Others 184.4 164.8
Total 374.9 393.1
Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare (%) Q3 ’16 Q3 ’17
Samsung 20.1% 21.2%
Apple 12.1% 11.9%
Huawei 9.0% 9.9%
OPPO 5.8% 8.0%
Xiaomi 3.9% 7.0%
Others 49.2% 41.9%
Total 100.0% 100.0%
Total Growth: Year-over-Year (%) 5.8% 4.9%
Source: Strategy Analytics

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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