Counterpoint: Huawei beats Apple's market share anew, catching up with Samsung in Q1

According to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, Huawei reached its highest ever smartphone market share yet.

Samsung Galaxy S10+, Huawei P30 Pro, and Apple iPhone XS flagship phones

Huawei started 2019 with a bang!

Huawei captured 17 percent of the global smartphone market share to best Apple's 12 percent. Huawei also recorded 50 percent of year-on-year (YoY) growth versus Apple's -20 percent.

Smartphone Shipment Market Share of Samsung, Huawei, and Apple

Last Q1 2018, Huawei and Apple had 11 and 14 percent of the global market share, respectively. In Q3 2018, Huawei's 13 percent bested Apple's 12 percent.

Samsung is still the global leader with 21 percent of the market share. However, the South Korean tech company is down from 22 percent last year. It is equivalent to -8 percent of YoY growth.

Counterpoint's Research Analyst, Shobhit Srivastava, noted,

Huawei became the second largest smartphone brand by shipments without a significant presence in an important market like the United States. It was also the fastest growing brand among the top 10. At this pace, we expect Huawei to remain ahead of Apple at the end of 2019. What has helped Huawei is the pace of its innovations. It was the first to introduce features like reverse wireless charging, on-board AI, advanced camera, and more. 

Counterpoint also added that Huawei and HONOR's dual-brand strategy helped the Chinese tech titan gain additional market share in a sluggish Chinese market.

The research firm added that Huawei is now a match for Samsung in smartphone hardware and it is Huawei that Samsung should be worrying about instead of Apple.

Q1 2019 top 10 players

The top 10 phone makers Q1 2019:

1. Samsung - 21 percent

2. Huawei - 17 percent

3. Apple - 12 percent

4. Xiaomi - 8 percent

5. OPPO - 8 percent

6. Vivo - 7 percent

7. Lenovo - 2 percent

8. LG - 2 percent

9. Tecno - 1 percent

10. Alcatel - 1 percent

Collectively, BBK Group (OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, realme) is the world's third biggest mobile marker. Counterpoint noted that all its brands registered growth during the quarter.

If you will notice, HMD Global (Nokia) is not in the list anymore. Last Q3 2018, the forger global leader has 1 percent of the market share.

Overall, global smartphone shipments declined 5 percent YoY in Q1 2019.

What do you guys think?

Source: Counterpoint