Huawei inching closer to Apple as the second largest smartphone manufacturer

Quarterly worldwide smartphone shipment numbers from market analytical firm IDC have been made public for Q2 2017 and the results are largely indifferent. When compared to Q2 2016, shipments are down 1.3 percent for a total count of 341.6 million units.

Looking closer at the data reveals some interesting details on the slight YoY drop. All of the top 5 largest manufacturers have actually shipped more smartphones compared to their respective numbers a year earlier, so the 1.3 percent dip is due entirely to the shrinking shipments from manufacturers not in the honorary top 5 list. Collectively, manufacturers outside of Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi have fallen in market share with a 16 percent drop in YoY shipments.

Both Samsung and Apple remain kings in the smartphone world with shipments accounting for over one-quarter of all smartphones. YoY growth, however, pale in comparison to Chinese competitors. Huawei, for example, has grown 19.6 percent with a shipment volume of 38.5 million units compared to 41 million from Apple. Of course, the following two quarters should see Apple bounce right back up and widen the gap when the iPhone 7 successor finally becomes available.

There's no denying that Samsung and Apple are feeling the pressure from the rising Chinese stars. Huawei in particular has been pushing its Mate smartphones and MateBook notebooks to North American audiences with local press events and launches.

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