Huawei Now World’s Third Biggest Seller Of Mobile Phones, Per Research Firm

Huawei is now the third largest vendor of mobile phones in the world, supplanting Microsoft, at least according to a new report published by market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Microsoft was not able to hold on to its number 3 spot, with its share of the world’s mobile phone market dropping to 6.4 percent during the second quarter of this year. During the same time last year, Microsoft had managed to capture 11.9 percent of the global market share for mobile phones. When it comes to shipments of mobile phones, Microsoft’s has fallen to 27.8 million units, which is a far cry from the 50.3 million units it had shipped one year earlier.

As for the new third placer, Huawei, it improved its market share to 7 percent. During the second quarter of last year, the Chinese phone maker captured only 4.8 percent of the global mobile phone market. Shipment wise, the company increased its volume from 20.6 million units over the same period last year, to 30.6 million units for the second quarter of this year.

Microsoft had acquired Nokia’s mobile division last year for a sum of $7.2 billion. But since the acquisition, the company has struggled to attract enough buyers to compete with the Big Two of the mobile phone industry, Samsung and Apple. Even after introducing a wide range of Lumia mobile phones that catered to various segments of the market, Microsoft’s market share continues to erode.

The company is hoping though that the release of its Windows 10 operating system later this year will help rack up more sales for its mobile phones. But it may have a pretty difficult road ahead, considering that competition is getting tougher and tougher, especially in the last few months of a given year.

Huawei’s ascendancy to third place is an indication that Chinese mobile phone vendors are continuing to grow stronger. And we are not just talking about Huawei here -- fellow China based phone maker has seen its market share increase to 4.6 percent during the second quarter of this year, compared to 3.5 percent during the second quarter of last year, with its mobile phone shipments rising to 19.8 million units from the 15.1 million units it shipped during the same period in the previous year. 

As for the two leaders, Samsung and Apple -- Samsung continues to lead with a market share of 20.5 percent (decreasing from the 22.3 percent share it enjoyed one year ago), with shipments numbering 89 million units (dropping from the 95.3 million units it shipped in the same period the previous year). Apple, on the other hand, saw its market share increase to 10.9 percent (8.2 percent one year ago), with its shipments also increasing to 47.5 million units (35.2 million units during the previous year).