China-based Huawei has become the world’s number two smartphone vendor in Q2 2018, beating Apple.
Huawei shipped 54 million (+41 percent) mobile handsets. This performance is partly due to strong sell-in of its latest flagship, the P20, which exceeded launch quarter sell-in of both the P10 and P9. Huawei’s Honor sub-brand accounted for two thirds of the near 16 million jump that Huawei made this quarter.
Samsung is the top smartphone vendor in Q2. The Korean electronics giant felt the impact of Huawei and others. Samsung shipped 73 million smartphones, registering 8 percent drop in the second quarter.
US-based Apple fell to third position in the global smartphone market, shipping 41 million iPhones, a 1 percent year-on-year growth. Apple recently started looking at making changes in strategies in India, one of the emerging telecom markets in the world.
Huawei strategies
Huawei faced crisis in the US mobile phone market. It has failed to supply phones to AT&T and some retail chains. But the China-based smartphone brand achieved significant growth in China, its home market.
618 promotions led to strong sales for Honor models in the online channels as the Honor brand continues to be a key driver of growth for the Chinese tech giant, said research firm IDC in its report.
Honor, which has long been a major brand in China but relatively small overseas, has taken a pivotal role in the strategy of Huawei.
Honor’s share of Huawei smartphone shipments increased from 24 percent in Q2 2017 to 36 percent this quarter. Huawei shipped close to 4 million Honor-branded smartphones outside of China in Q2, representing 150 percent growth, research firm Canalys said.
Mo Jia, Canalys Analyst based in Shanghai, said: “Despite its failure to strike a US carrier partnership earlier this year, the company has turned around quickly, moving away from its drive for profitability and focusing instead on finding volume growth at the low end.”
Honor is building and deploying an independent sales force, parallel to Huawei’s, driving the brand into new markets, and democratizing Huawei’s flagship technology. Its focus on an open-market strategy has made it particularly potent in Russia, India and Western European markets.
Huawei shipped 7 million units of P20 and P20 Pro.
Huawei has accelerated its adoption of technologies focusing on AI with its NPU chipsets and on imaging with its triple-camera setup.
The P20 and P20 Pro sold faster than their predecessors in their launch quarter. Outside of China, the P20 and P20 Pro more than doubled the shipments of the P10 and P10 Plus.
Huawei managed to grow over the previous year in most regions, except in North America. The Asia-Pacific region posted the biggest growth in the second quarter, rising 107 percent year over year, while Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) recorded more than 60 percent growth.
“Huawei is shifting to 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,” Gerrit Schneemann, senior research analyst, smartphones, IHS Markit, said.
Huawei utilized its increasing brand recognition in Europe and Asia to challenge Samsung in many price segments.
Research firm Strategy Analytics said Huawei’s midrange Android models, such as Nova 2S and Nova 3e, are proving popular across Asia and Europe.
Samsung shipped 71.5 million smartphones, tumbling 10 percent annually from 79.5 million units in Q2 2017. This was Samsung’s worst quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2016. Samsung is being squeezed by Chinese rivals, like Xiaomi and Huawei, across major Asian markets such as China and India.
Apple shipment volume stayed flat, with 0.7 percent growth, rising slightly to 41.3 million units. Apple sold six iPhone models in the second quarter of 2017, while the company sold nine models this year.
Xiaomi shipped 33.7 million units (+45.6 percent). Oppo and Vivo posted 4.5 percent and 7.6 percent drop, respectively. Oppo shipped 31.9 million units. Vivo shipped 28.6 million units in the second quarter of 2018.
Baburajan K
