Huawei has overtaken Apple again and remains the world’s second largest smartphone vendor for two consecutive quarters, according to analyst firms such as IDC, IHS Markit, and Counterpoint.
IDC says smartphone vendors shipped 355.2 million units in Q3, down by 6.0% Year over Year, leading to a fourth-quarter loss. This casts doubt on the smartphone market. China represents roughly one third of smartphone share. It has experienced decline since Q2 2017, and Q3 2018 is the sixth quarter where the market sees contraction.
However, Huawei is gaining momentum. The company secured the position 2 spot for another quarter. Even though its market share was down slightly from last quarter’s 15.9%, Huawei still shipped 52 million handsets and grabbed 14.6% global market share. From a product perspective, its P-series and Mate-series are keeping it as competitive as ever.
And the Honor model (pictured on top), which focuses on young consumers through online channels, has continued to sell well in many markets.
Top 5 Smartphone Companies by Worldwide Shipments, Market Share, and YoY Growth, Q2 2018 (shipment figures in million)
Huawei’s success can be attributed to its persistent efforts in Research & Development (R&D) and customer experience. Strong R&D for great innovation R&D is one of Huawei’s keys to success. In 2017, Huawei invested CNY89.7 billion into research and development, accounting for 15% of its total revenue. It’s ranked 6th in terms of global R&D investment.
A few months ago, the European Commission released the “2017 Global Enterprise R&D Investment Rankings”, covering 2,500 global enterprises including 481 Chinese companies. Among the top ten Chinese firms, Huawei ranked first with an annual R&D investment of 10.4 billion euros.
The company has set up 14 R&D centers worldwide and 36 joint innovation centers. Huawei has been leading the industry regarding technology innovation, chipset R&D, and AI intelligence. Thanks to its premium products, this smartphone giant has won both the consumer and market. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said the global shipment of Huawei smartphones had exceeded 100 million by July 18.
Thanks to these efforts, the Huawei brand has become something that the world loves. More people are switching to (and even sticking to) Huawei smartphones. The key takeaway? Richard Yu once said, “Huawei CBG starts from and ends with end users”. To satisfy and delight customers has always been the “one thing” Huawei-ers do every day.
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