HONG KONG/SINGAPORE: China’s Huawei Technologies overtook Apple Inc to become the world’s second-biggest smartphone seller in the June quarter, data from market research firms showed, as it gained ground in Europe and expanded its lead back home.
The estimated rise in market share comes as a slowdown in the world’s biggest smartphone market, China, eased. Huawei has also managed to get ahead of rivals by selling more feature-packed phones, analysts said.
“Huawei is shifting to more value-added models, by launching new flagship smartphones with the latest features. Huawei’s P20 Pro is the first flagship smartphone model to be equipped with triple cameras, beating competitors to market,” IHS Markit analyst Gerrit Schneemann said in a note.
Huawei on Tuesday said overall it had raked in 15 per cent higher revenue in the first six months of 2018, steady at levels seen a year ago.
According to IHS and Strategy Analytics, Huawei grabbed more than 15 per cent of the global smartphone market over April-June, overtaking Apple’s roughly 12 per cent and just behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s nearly 20 per cent share.
Data from Canalys, which estimates industrywide smartphone shipments in China topped 100 million in the second quarter from 91 million in the first, shows Huawei grew its share of the home market by 6 percentage points on year to a record 27 per cent.
The Chinese market is key for Huawei as it has come under fire from the United States, Australia and other nations over concerns it could facilitate Chinese government spying.
The company has been virtually shut out from the United States with no major carriers selling its smartphones. Huawei has denied it facilitates spying and has said it is a private company not under Chinese government control and not subject to Chinese security laws overseas. Analysts, however, expressed concerns over the whether the improvement in the Chinese market was sustainable. While the rate of decline has eased, the Chinese market is expected to weaken in the following quarters, Canalys said. — Reuters
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