2015 is shaping up to be the year that Chinese smartphone makers are cementing their hold of the smartphone market. According to a new report on Q3 2015 by Counterpoint Research, 9 out of 10 smartphone brands in the world are from China. Now we really can’t surprised that some of the most counterfeited devices are Chinese smartphone brands like Xiaomi.
It is not even hard to see why. Huawei has cemented its hold of the third position among the top smartphone vendors in the world behind leaders Samsung and Apple. Another Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, has risen from obscurity to give other Chinese device makers like Lenovo and ZTE a run for their money. Lenovo acquired American device maker Motorola Mobility from Google last year and this has further strengthened its position in the market even as it grapples with the teething issues that have plagued just about every other device maker other than Apple.
Huawei, ZTE and Meizu were the fastest growing smartphone brands in Q3 2015.
Thanks to availing affordable smartphones, particularly in China, Oppo, Vivo and LeTV were able to break into the top 10 in Q3 2015.
Here are some other interesting statistics from the report:
- 495 million mobile phone units were shipped in Q3 2015. Out of those, 3 out of every 4 (366 million) were smartphones. The demand for LTE-capable smartphones is touted as being largely responsible for this.
- Apple managed to increase its marketshare as well as matching it with revenues as the iPhone’s profits accounted for 63% of the company’s total earnings.
- Samsung shipped 105 million mobile phones with smartphones accounting for 84 million of those. The entry level and lower mid-range Galaxy J smartphones are largely responsible for the rise in Samsung smartphone demand with the Galaxy J5 being singled out as a best seller in Q3 2015.
- Huawei gained a global smartphone marketshare of 7.5% rising by 63 percentage points year over year. It is in Q3 that Huawei managed to topple Xiaomi to become the top smartphone vendor in the competitive Chinese market where sales of its devices were up by 4%. The company’s presence is still not yet felt in North America even though its budget Honor smartphone lineup is doing very well in the markets where it is available like India.
- Xiaomi shipped 18.5 million smartphones in Q3 2015 to have its global marketshare standing at 5%. This is expected to change as the company enters new markets. It is currently in the process of setting up shop in Africa, one of the hottest emerging smartphone markets.
- Lenovo was the casualty of the rise of Huawei and other Chinese smartphone brands as smartphone shipments dipped by 5%. Even then, it still maintains its place in the top 5 smartphone vendors thanks to favourable sales outside China in markets like the Middle East, India and South Asia.
