Huawei Knocks Apple Out Of The 2nd Place Position In Smartphone Sales

Apple got pushed out of the number two spot in terms of smartphone shipments for the second quarter of 2018, according to market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

In a press release highlighting the results for the June ending quarter, IDC said smartphone vendors shipped 342 million units in the second quarter, marking a 1.8 percent decline year-over-year. In the second quarter of last year, that number was 349.2 million. It marks the third quarter in a row of year-over-year declines, and only the fourth quarter of declines ever. IDC cited churn in some highly saturated markets for the decline, but noted high growth markets still remain and should boost overall shipment growth going forward.

As for the leaders during the second quarter, IDC found China-based Huawei landed in second place, marking the first quarter since the second quarter of 2010 where Apple wasn’t in first or second place. Huawei had shipments of 54.2 million units, and record high market shares of 15.8 percent. Samsung, meanwhile, was in first place with a comfortable lead over the second and third place players.

“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, in a press release announcing the quarterly shipment results.“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 and beyond. For most markets, the ultra-high end ($700+) competition is largely some combination of Apple, Samsung and Huawei, depending on the geography, and this is unlikely to change much in the short term. At the same time, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo are all slowly pushing their customer base upstream at a price tier slightly lower than the top three. This is an area they should all watch closely as the builds in this segment are getting increasingly more advanced.”

For the second quarter, Samsung was able to maintain its lead even as shipments declined 10.4 percent compared to last year’s second quarter. IDC said its flagship S9 and S9 Plus saw weaker than normal sales brought on by heightened competition and an overall sluggish smartphone market. Meanwhile, Apple shipped 41.3 million iPhones, marking growth of just 0.7 percent compared to a year ago. IDC noted the iPhone X remains a top seller in many markets.