HMD sold 4.4 million smartphones in Q4 2017, more than OnePlus, Sony, or Google

Nokia came back with a bang a year ago. The company released the Nokia 6 at the start of 2017, a solid mid-range offering by a company looking to return to its roots. Data by Counterpoint shows that the company's growth over the course of the year has been meteoric, with the Finnish now being the 11th biggest smartphone brand in the world.

According to Counterpoint analyst Neil Shah, the Finnish company shipped 4.4 million smartphones in the last quarter of 2017. This puts the company above the paygrades of companies like OnePlus, Google, Sony, Meizu, Gionee, Lenovo, HTC, and a few others. It's particularly impressive as the company released its first device just over a year ago. 

In juxtaposition, Essential, a similarly positioned brand, managed to ship just under 90,000 units over the last six months. It's, of course, slightly unfair to compare HMD to companies like OnePlus, Google, or Essential. The Finnish company released six devices across various price segments last year, while the aforementioned released just one or two flagship-only devices. It's no surprise, then that HMD has managed to achieve better sales. The Finnish company surpassing brands like Sony and HTC still comes as a pleasant surprise, though.

Going by Neil Shah's data, the company now has a 1% global market share. The company also finished the year as the third-biggest brand in the UK, #1 in Vietnam, while still being in the top five in Russia and a few other Middle East countries.

HMD is considered by most to be an offshoot of the original Nokia brand, and rightfully so. The company has done a lot of things right with its devices so far, mostly sticking to simple, well-built, capable pieces of hardware. The fact that the company has one of the best software update policies in the ecosystem is a nice bonus.