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Apple will remember the 2nd quarter of this financial year, so will Huawei.
For, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the Chinese phonemaker by-passed the US one for the 1st time ever to take 2nd place in the overall global phones shipment. Samsung was still on the top.
IDC said smartphone vendors shipped a total of 342.0 million units during 2Q18, resulting in a 1.8% decline when compared to the 348.2 million units shipped in the same period last year. The drop marks the 3rd consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines for the global smartphone market, & only the 4th quarter of decline in history. IDC believes this was the result of churn in some highly penetrated markets, although many high growth markets still exist & should return smartphone shipments to overall growth.
The arrival of Huawei in the 2nd position marks the 1st quarter since 2Q10 where Apple has not been the number one or two smartphone company in terms of market share. Huawei delivered shipments of 54.2 million units to move into the 2nd position with a record high market share of 15.8%. Samsung maintained a comfortable lead, although indications from its recent 2Q18 earnings call suggest its mobile division revenues will face challenges moving forward.
“The continued growth of Huawei is impressive, to say the least, as is its ability to move into markets where, until recently, the brand was largely unknown,” said Ryan Reith, program Vice President with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “It is worth noting that Apple moved into the top position each of the last two holiday quarters following its product refresh, so it’s likely we’ll see continued movement among the top ranked companies in 2018 & beyond. For most markets, the ultra-high end ($700+) competition is largely some combination of Apple, Samsung, & Huawei, depending on the geography, & this is unlikely to change much in the short term. At the same time, Xiaomi, OPPO, & vivo are all slowly pushing their customer base upstream at a price tier slightly lower than the top 3. This is an area they should all watch closely as the builds in this segment are getting increasingly more advanced.”
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