Huawei gunning for Samsung after overtaking Apple in smartphone market

Growing competition from Chinese vendors sees Apple and Samsung struggle to retain their positions, according to Gartner

Huawei has surpassed Apple to take the number two position in the smartphone market, according to Gartner.

Samsung retained its number one position in Q2 but saw unit sales decline 12.6 per cent, while Huawei saw sales grow by 38.6 per cent in the same period.

Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, attributed Huawei's growth to the success of its Honor smartphone.

"Huawei continues to bring innovative features into its smartphones and expand its smartphone portfolio to cover larger consumer segments," he said.

"Its investment into channels, brand building and positioning of the Honor devices helped drive sales.

"Huawei is shipping its Honor smartphones into 70 markets worldwide and is emerging as Huawei's key growth driver."

The analyst reported a flat second quarter for Apple, with demand for the iPhone X slowing down much earlier than expected, according to Gupta. This has led it to fall to third place in the global vendor rankings.

Huawei sold 50 million units in its second quarter, compared with Apple's 45 million. Fourth and fifth places were taken by Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi and OPPO, respectively.

Samsung retained its number one position with sales of 72 million units; however, that represents a decline of 10.5 million units sold compared to the same period in 2017.

Both Samsung and its US rival's slow growth are attributed to growing competition from Chinese vendors such as Huawei and Xiaomi.

"Samsung faces slowing global smartphone demand and ever-growing competition from Chinese manufacturers," stated Gupta, adding that the company expects its Note 9 device to reverse its decline.

This challenge is also attributed to Apple's flat growth along with increasing demands from its customers, Gupta said.

"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," he added.