Huawei Phones Were Q2's Big Winner, but Total Shipments Fell 1.8%, Says IDC

Smartphone vendors shipped 342 million handsets globally in Q2, 1.8 percent less than they shipped in the same year-earlier quarter, said IDC Tuesday. It was the third straight quarter of year-over-year declines and only the fourth quarterly decrease in the history of the product, it said: “IDC believes this is the result of churn in some highly penetrated markets, although many high growth markets still exist and should return smartphone shipments to overall growth.” Huawei was Q2's big winner, as its 41 percent shipments increase to 54.2 million smartphones enabled it to leapfrog Apple into a solid No. 2 position behind Samsung, said IDC. It was the first quarter since 2010's Q2 in which Apple wasn't the No. 1 or No. 2 brand, it said. An IHS Markit analysis had a nearly identical take on the Q2 smartphone landscape, agreeing with IDC that total shipments declined 1.8 percent. IHS also tracked Huawei’s meteoric rise in the standings, saying the brand “managed to grow over the previous year in most regions, except in North America.” Huawei is “shifting to more value-added models, by launching new flagship smartphones with the latest features,” and “beating competitors to market” in the process, said IHS. Its P20 Pro is the first flagship smartphone model equipped with triple cameras, it said. Huawei’s “increasing brand recognition in Europe and Asia is enabling the company to challenge Samsung in many price segments,” it said.