Huawei sees 43 per cent growth in demand for its smartphones, emerging as one of the top 3 leaders in the European market. Gartner has also projected that about 65 million 5G smartphones will be sold by 2020.
According to Gartner, Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi helped drive global smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2018. The overall sales of smartphones to end users grew 1.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2018 to reach 389 million units.
Anshul Gupta, Research Director, Gartner said, “Led by low-price smartphones, enhanced camera features and high-quality resolution displays, top Chinese mobile phone manufacturers boosted their sales across emerging markets in the third quarter of 2018.”
He added that if Huawei and Xiaomi were taken out of the global smartphone vendors list, smartphone sales to end users would have declined by 5.2 per cent.
Huawei tops the list
Gartner reported that while smartphones sales were slowing down for most mobile phone manufacturers, Huawei witnessed 43 per cent growth in demand for its smartphones. The Chinese brand ranked the top position in Greater China and emerged as one of the top 3 leaders in the European market.
Gupta said, “The gap between Samsung and Huawei continues to shrink, as Huawei expands aggressively by investing in branding and distribution in the emerging markets of the Middle East, Asia/Pacific and Africa.”
Huawei vs Samsung
Huawei has positioned its affordable Honor series smartphones to drive the shift from feature phones to smartphones in the global markets. Samsung has experienced its biggest decline since Gartner has been tracking smartphone sales globally.
Samsung’s smartphone sales declined 14 per cent in the third quarter.
Apple’s growth rate slows down
Apple’s performance was flat in the third quarter of 2018 (0.7 per cent growth). “Apple’s iPhone models are facing a saturated premium smartphone market, with slowing growth rates and increased competition in China,” informed Gupta. “Apple’s new flagship smartphones, announced in September, will be key to defining Apple’s overall iPhone unit sales in 2018,” he added.
5G and Foldable Smartphones are the future
The attention of mobile phone manufacturers is gradually moving to new technologies like 5G and foldable forms. The 5G mobile phone sales are expected to reach around 65 million units in 2020.
Robert Cozza, Research Director, Gartner, said, “While 2019 will mark an important year for more Research & Development and testing/trials of varying 5G technologies, it is unlikely that 5G will be seen in mobile devices in significant volumes before 2020.”
