Huawei toasts 21.6pc rise in smartphone shipments in first quarter
Chinese company shipped 34.55 million phones, maintaining its third place global ranking after Samsung and Apple
Huawei has further consolidated its third place global smartphone ranking after sales surged 21.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
The Chinese giant has also regained top sales position domestically, after being outstripped by Oppo in the annual sales chart last year.
Huawei said it shipped 34.55 million smartphones in the first quarter, up 21.6 per cent from the same period last year.
The result slightly differs from the IDC data released on April 27 which suggested the firm had shipped 34.2 million handsets in the period, up 21.7 per cent over 28.1 million units in the first quarter last year.
Citing IDC data, Huawei said that it had expanded its global share to 9.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 from 8.4 per cent for the same period last year.
Samsung and Apple remain the world’s top two smartphone vendors, but both their market shares shrank slightly over the past year.
The South Korean firm’s latest global share was 22.8 per cent, down from 23.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, while Apple slid from 15.4 per cent to 14.9 per cent this time.
Oppo and Vivo, the Chinese brands, shipped 25.6 million and 18.1 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2016, according to the IDC data.
Huawei only just missed out on top spot in domestic smartphone shipments in 2016 after shipping 76.6 million handsets, which trailed behind Oppo’s 78.4 million handsets. Vivo shipped 69.2 million units in China last year.
In the first three months of this year, Huawei smartphone shipments increased by over 50 per cent year-on-year in 52 countries, 32 of which saw growth of over 100 per cent, it said.
In Europe, its other key market, smartphone sales registered an overall 15 per cent increase during the period, the company said.
Huawei has also boosted sales of premium cellular phones, those priced above US$500, which held 9.7 per cent market share in February 2017, according to separate data by GFK.
