Move over Samsung: Huawei is the most profitable Android smartphone supplier
Apple remains smartphone industry leader in terms of profitability, with a 91 per cent global market share in the third quarter
Huawei Technologies, China’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, has displaced Samsung Electronics to become the second most profitable smartphone supplier in the world in the three months ended September 30, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
The Shenzhen-based company had a 2.4 per cent share of the global smartphone operating profits in the third quarter, behind US technology giant Apple’s dominant 91 per cent share.
“It also became the world’s most profitable Android smartphone vendor for the first time,” Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday. “We expect Huawei to maintain steady profitability into the first half of 2017, because its smartphone shipments are growing and it is doing a good job of controlling [operating] costs.”
Mawston said Vivo and Oppo Electronics also showed that same momentum, as the two Chinese Android smartphone brands each cornered a 2.2 per cent share of global smartphone operating profits in the third quarter.
Strategy Analytics estimated that Apple generated US$8.5 billion in operating profit in the third quarter, while rounding out the gains made by Huawei, Vivo and Oppo at US$200 million each.