Two Chinese smartphone makers pushed US technology giant Apple Inc into third place in the world’s biggest market in the second quarter, an independent analyst firm said yesterday.
Xiaomi Corp (小米), known for delivering high-performance products at cheap prices, was the largest smartphone vendor in China based on shipments, with a 15.9 percent market share in the April-June period, Canalys said in a news release.
Telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co (華為) was close behind at 15.7 percent, it said, followed by Apple, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and Chinese firm Vivo Electronics Corp (維沃移動通信), without giving the percentages for those three.
US technology giant Apple had taken the top spot in the Canalys rankings for the first three months of this year, and its third-place showing came despite the launch of its larger-screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last year.
“Competition among major brands has never been so intense,” Canalys analyst Wang Jingwen (王京文) said in the statement. “Xiaomi is under immense pressure to maintain its top position in the quarters to come.”
China is the world’s largest smartphone market by shipments, Canalys said previously.
Apple’s iPhone sales surged 85 percent in the greater China area — which Canalys defines as including Hong Kong and Taiwan — with revenue from the region more than doubling to US$13 billion for the latest quarter ended on June 27, according to the company.
“We remain extremely bullish on China and we are continuing to invest,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month when the company announced earnings.
“We would be foolish to change our plans. I think China is a fantastic geography with an incredible, unprecedented level of opportunity,” he said.
Huawei last month said that its global smartphone shipments surged 39 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year to 48.2 million as it focused on mid to high-end models.
However, a top Huawei executive last month said that his company and Xiaomi were pitching to different segments of the Chinese market.
“We’re different than Xiaomi. No two companies are alike,” Huawei deputy chairman and rotating CEO Ken Hu (胡厚崑) told journalists. “If you want to compare us to other companies, you can see from the increase in [sales] volume that we have a lot of advantages.”
Industry officials say Huawei has targeted Samsung as it seeks to be the king of Android smartphones in China. Huawei is also investing in 5G technology for future growth.
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