HUAWEI has surpassed Apple to secure second spot in worldwide smartphone vendor position for the first time, according to Gartner Inc.

In the second quarter of 2018, Huawei smartphone sales grew 38,6 percent.

“Huawei continues to bring innovative features into its smartphones and expand its smartphone portfolio to cover larger consumer segments,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

Huawei’s investment into channels, brand building and positioning of the Honor devices has helped drive sales.

“Huawei is shipping its Honor smartphones into 70 markets worldwide and is emerging as Huawei’s key growth driver,” Gupta said.

Worldwide sales of smartphones grew 2 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

Samsung maintained the No.1 global smartphone vendor spot, declining 12,7 percent.

“Samsung faces slowing global smartphone demand and ever-growing competition from Chinese manufacturers. The slowing demand for its flagship smartphones left Samsung with lower profitability,” Gupta said.

Samsung now expects the Note 9 smartphone to revive growth.

Apple slid to third after a 0,9 percent growth.

Gupta said minimal incremental value in Apple’s current-generation flagship iPhones led to slower growth in the second quarter of 2018.

“Growing competition from Chinese brands and consumers’ greater expectations for phone value is putting immense pressure on Apple to deliver enhanced value on their premium iPhones to foster growth,” Gupta added.

Xiaomi secured the No. 4 spot in the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2018.

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Google’s Android further extended its lead over Apple’s iOS in the second quarter of 2018, securing 88 percent market share to 11,9 per cent share for iOS.

– CAJ News