Technology

Huawei overtakes Apple as world No. 2 smartphone maker

Updated : August 28, 2018 03:38 PM IST

Samsung maintained the No. 1 position despite a decline of 12.7 percent in this quarter, while Apple moved into the No. 3 spot.

Huawei’s smartphone sales grew 38.6 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

China's Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world's no.2 phone maker for the first time in the second quarter of 2018, according to a report published by research house Gartner.

Huawei’s smartphone sales grew 38.6 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the report said.

Samsung maintained the No. 1 position despite a decline of 12.7 percent in this quarter, while Apple moved into the No. 3 spot.

"Huawei continues to bring innovative features into its smartphones and expand its smartphone portfolio to cover larger consumer segments," said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

Huawei's investment into channels, brand building and positioning of the Honor devices helped drive sales, Gupta said, adding that the Chinese phone-maker is shipping its Honor smartphones into 70 markets worldwide and is emerging as Huawei’s key growth driver.

Xiaomi secured no.4 spot buy focussing on expanding its portfolio and adopting a unified retail model by integrating offline and online retail is driving growth in a slowing global smartphone market, according to the report.

Overall, sales of smartphones to end users grew 2 percent in the Q2 to reach 374 million units, the report said.

Growing competition from Chinese companies is affecting Samsung and Apple.

"The slowing demand for its flagship smartphones left Samsung with lower profitability. It now expects the Note 9 smartphone to revive growth," Gupta said.

With a slowdown in sales of iPhone X, Apple’s performance was flat in the second quarter of 2018, the report said.

"Growing competition from Chinese brands and consumers’ greater expectations for phone value is putting immense pressure on Apple to deliver enhanced value on their premium iPhones to foster growth," added Mr. Gupta.