Huawei becomes China's top smartphone vendor in Q3

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Huawei becomes China's top smartphone vendor in Q3

Chen Man-nung and Staff Reporter 2015-10-23 16:42

The Huawei Mate S smartphone. (File photo/Xinhua)

Huawei replaced Xiaomi as the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer in the China market in the third quarter, according to market researcher Canalys.

In a statement released on Oct. 21, Canalys said that Huawei posted an 81% year-on-year growth in shipments in the third quarter, unseating the market leader Xiaomi, which saw a decline in shipments from a year earlier.

"Huawei's ascent to China's smartphone throne is a remarkable feat, especially in the context of an increasingly cutthroat and maturing Chinese smart phone market," said Jessie Ding, a Shanghai-based Canalys research analyst.

Xiaomi, meanwhile, has been hit by slower economic growth in its home market, where it registers the majority of its sales, and "is under tremendous pressure to keep growing," according to the Canalys report.

Canalys did not publish its estimates for the companies' third-quarter shipments, which it said will be released at the end of October.

Huawei also beat Xiaomi in the global market in the third quarter, according to a report published by market researcher TrendForce on Oct. 14.

Samsung and Apple led the global smartphone market in the quarter, with a share of 24.6% and 17.3%, respectively, of total shipments of 332 million units, TrendForce said.

Huawei was in third place with an 8.4% market share, followed by Xiaomi and Lenovo, each with a market share of 5.7%.

Amid fierce competition in China's mid- to low-end market, Xiaomi's sales in the first nine months of the year are estimated at 53.20 million units and its full-year sales are projected at 80 million units.

During the recent WSJ.D Live event held by the Wall Street Journal in California, Xiaomi co-founder and president, Lin Bin, said the company was considering launching its Mi Note and Mi Note Plus models in the United States, after securing a 14% market share in India.

On Oct. 19, Xiaomi also unveiled its smart Mi TV 3, TV and video streaming device Mi TV Bar, and a self-balancing scooter called Ninebot mini, further expanding its offerings in the smart home ecosystem.

Huawei's exposure in the media has been growing as result of its new investment in graphene-based technologies in the United Kingdom, a recent visit to its operations there by Chinese president Xi Jinping, and its first developers' congress in Shenzhen.

On the opening day of the two-day congress on Oct. 19, Huawei announced a 5-year, US$1 billion project to support developers of information and communication technology.