Huawei overtakes LG to become the third largest smartphone manufacturer
Soon, most of the smartphone manufacturers will publish their financial results for Q3. While we are waiting to see the official reports, Strategy Analytics has revealed an interesting smartphone market study. According to the research, Huawei has climbed into third place in market share, overtaking LG.
In the rapidly growing market, the Chinese vendor shipped around 12.7 million units in the third quarter of the year. It has resulted in almost double sales compared with the same period last year. As a result, Huawei’s share has increased by 0.7% to 5.1 in Q3 2013. LG’s share, on the other hand, dropped by 0.7% to 4.8%, enough for the fourth place in the ranking.
Huawei’s performance is a result of the increased popularity of the latest models launched by the Chinese – Ascend P6 and Ascend G610. Moreover, Huawei has established itself as a major player in the fast-growing local Chinese market, where the company’s products have become extremely popular. It would be interesting to see the future reaction of LG. The Korean giant shipped 12 million smartphones, or 0.7 million units less than Huawei.
Other interesting trends revealed in the report include the continuous overall market growth. In total, 251 million units have been shipped during the quarter, which is a 45% increase compared with the same period in 2012. The leading smartphone vendor remains Samsung with a 35.2% share (+2.3%) or 88.4 million shipments. Apple’s share has dipped from 15.6% in 2012 to 13.4% in Q3 this year. However, Apple is expected to recover in the next quarter because the company faces an increased demand for the new iPhone 5s. The other major Chinese vendor Lenovo is fifth with a 4.3% share or 10.8 million shipments.
Finally, we should note that the Strategy Analytics report covers only the units shipped by the manufacturers, so the numbers can slightly differ from the actual smartphone usage in the countries.
Source: Strategy Analytics
