Skip to main content

Huawei overtakes Apple as the second-largest smartphone seller

Huawei has taken Apple’s spot as the world’s second top-selling smartphone manufacturer, according to Gartner. The report notes that Huawei sold 49.8 million units in the second quarter of 2018, taking 13.3 percent of the smartphone market share and beating out Apple’s 44.7 million units. The report confirms another report from Counterpoint research.

That 13.3 percent market share is up from the 9.8 percent market share that Huawei had in the second quarter of 2017, and Apple’s 11.9 percent market share is down from the 12.1 percent market share from last year — even if only slightly down.

Recommended Videos

Of course, it’s likely Apple will regain its spot in the third quarter, especially considering the fact that the company is expected to release as many as three iPhones in September. Still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Apple is facing increased competition from Chinese manufacturers like Huawei, which is forcing Apple to rethink the iPhone and deliver new features in an effort to convince existing customers to upgrade to new models, and others to think about switching to the iPhone. According to Gartner, demand for the iPhone X, Apple’s flagship iPhone, has slowed down much earlier than previous new iPhone models.

After Samsung, Huawei, and Apple, the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo take the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, further highlighting the competition that Apple and Samsung face from Chinese smartphone brands. Xiaomi, in particular, made notable growth. While the company sold around 21 million units in the second quarter of 2017, in 2018’s second quarter, it managed to increase that to almost 33 million units, snapping up 8.8 percent of the smartphone sales market share in the process.

It’s no surprise that Samsung held on to the top spot, but its sales did slow a little. While the company held 19.3 percent of the market share, that is down quite a bit from the 22.6 percent of the market share that it had in the second quarter of 2017.

Gartner also reported on the smartphone operating system market share. According to the report, Android extended its lead over iOS with 88 percent of the smartphone market share, up from 87.8 percent in the second quarter of 2017. iOS held 11.9 percent, while everything else went down from 0.1 percent to 0.0 percent, reflecting the dominance of the big two operating systems.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
A company you wouldn’t expect just beat Apple as the No. 1 smartwatch brand
A Huawei smartwatch on a person's wrist.

Apple’s wearable devices, and specifically its smartwatches, are often deemed the default best. The ecosystem around the Apple Watch is often cited as the core convenience, but there’s no doubt that Apple deserves merit for health innovation and technical prowess, too.

It, therefore, comes as a surprise that a sanction-battered company with a far smaller presence in the West has managed to topple Apple and nab the crown of the world’s biggest wrist-worn device brand. The company in question is Huawei.

Read more
One of the biggest smartphone manufacturers is done with Android
Huawei Mate 70 in green.

Since smartphones arrived nearly two decades ago, the market has primarily been split between Apple's iOS and Google's Android. That’s about to change, however, as one of the world’s largest smartphone companies has decided to go another way.

According to Bloomberg, Huawei plans to ditch Android on its devices beginning next year. In its place will be HarmonyOS Next, an in-house platform considered a significant upgrade to the company's HarmonyOS operating system. The new OS is based on the open-source OpenHarmony project.

Read more
What does a 120Hz refresh rate do? Smartphone refresh rates explained
Playing Dianlo Immortal on iPhone 14 Pro

A number of manufacturers have added 90Hz and 120Hz displays to smartphones -- like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra -- and lots of numbers are being thrown around (60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz), but what do they mean? Most importantly, what will they mean for how you'll use your smartphone?

Smartphones are getting more and more powerful, but with the last generation's hardware still holding its own, the jump from generation to generation doesn't seem as great as it once did. Where are manufacturers to go when a new phone doesn't feel more powerful than last year's device? One alternative is to make it feel smoother and more responsive -- and a great way to do that is to increase the refresh rate of its display.

Read more