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Businesses Cellphones The Almighty Buck Apple

Huawei Surpasses Apple As the World's Second Largest Smartphone Brand (theverge.com) 115

According to analysis by consulting firm Counterpoint Research, China's leading smartphone marker, Huawei, surpassed Apple's global smartphone sales for the first time in June and July. The company is only behind Samsung in sales. The Verge reports: Figures haven't been released yet for August, though Counterpoint indicates sales for that month also look strong. However, it's worth noting that with Apple's new iPhone releases just around the corner, the iPhone maker is almost certain to get back on top in September. Researchers at Counterpoint also point out that Huawei has a weak presence in the South Asian, Indian, and North American markets, which "limits Huawei's potential to the near-to-mid-term to take a sustainable second place position behind Samsung." Its strongest market is China, and it's also popular in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Still, Apple doesn't have much to worry about; Counterpoint says the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus remain the world's best-selling smartphones, while Oppo's R11 and A57 claimed the third and fourth spots, respectively, followed by Samsung's Galaxy S8, Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4X, and Samsung's Galaxy S8 Plus. Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list.
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Huawei Surpasses Apple As the World's Second Largest Smartphone Brand

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  • nothing surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gravewax ( 4772409 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @02:11AM (#55151973)
    " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones. They could easily become Number 1 and never have a phone in the top 10. haven't touched their phones myself but I hear mostly good things about them, it is their tablets that interest me.
    • I have Huawei Maimang 5, a good but overpriced mid-range phone.

      As I understand, the model has like 10 different names and minor modifications that are sold as different models

      • Wonder if that's to protect their phones from being knocked off the market via patent disputes.
        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          It's because they have manufacturing capacity to sell phones specifically tailored for each niche and still remain profitable.

    • by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @03:53AM (#55152153)

      " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones.

      Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

      • Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

        It *did* work great for them back in the dumb-phone and feature-phone era.

        Management just completely fucked up everything afterwards regarding smartphones :
        - They dragged the aging symbian platfrom way too much. ("But hey, it has always worked until now, so it's a safe bet !") (~yeah sure. And maybe Palm should have stuck to PalmOS even longer~)
        - They let go the R&D departement which was until that point striving to make nice smartphone/tablet OS (the Meamo/Meego line with N700, N800, N900, and the firs

        • Nokia did that too, I hear it worked out great for them.

          It *did* work great for them back in the dumb-phone and feature-phone era.

          Management just completely fucked up everything afterwards regarding smartphones : - They dragged the aging symbian platfrom way too much. ("But hey, it has always worked until now, so it's a safe bet !") (~yeah sure. And maybe Palm should have stuck to PalmOS even longer~) - They let go the R&D departement which was until that point striving to make nice smartphone/tablet OS (the Meamo/Meego line with N700, N800, N900, and the first large scale public N9, etc.) and would have actually helped Nokia become relevant in the smartphone era. ("But hey, it's burning money, let's leave the burning ship for shareholder's sake !") (on the other hand that team manage to escape the burning ship on a small jolla (pun intended by them) to survive and put an interesting OS on the marked) - They decided to ged in bet with Microsoft. ("But in the business world you're never wrong to go to Microsoft !" (Or was it IBM ?~) )

          End result : "we didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost"

          They kept doing stupid shit that would sound "a safe bet" to an MBA, but didn't make any sense. (And the biggest part of these decision was taken by microsoft shills such as Elop)

          I always figured that scrapping the Meamo/Meego line and hiring a Microsoft executive was what really finished them off.

          • By the time of Nokia, everyone should have been wary of partnering with Microsoft especially when it came to mobile devices. The failure of the Zune and Kin and the stagnation of Windows Mobile should have been a red flag.
    • " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list. " only surprising if you are ignorant of the market. Huawei make a shit ton of different model phones

      Yup, my reflexion too.
      It's easier for Apple to be top selling phone - even if they sell in much smaller volume - when they basically only sell one single phone in 2 variations.
      Huawei might sell a much bigger total volume, but divided by hundreds of models, none of the phone will individually beat any of the top 10 sellers.

      Same situation with operating system regarding iOS vs Android:
      back then's Apple smartphone were the top seller, but Android was (and is still today) the most popular OS even if no phone wi

    • " Surprisingly, despite overtaking Apple in global sales, none of Huawei's phones appear on the Top 10 list." I was thinking this is what positions Huawei for even further growth. I mean, to be #2 in the market and have none of your products in the the top 10 means there is a big target for the company to rally around. That kind of goal-setting tends to spark innovation in a firm. Huawei's built rock-solid products for a while, so it's pretty exciting to see what the coming years will bring them. Of co
    • I've heard anecdotally online and from friends that Huawei's support is sub-Samsung. Meaning you'll get a few security patches, and maybe an OTA point release upgrade for Android, but that's about it.

      Could be wrong, but usually support is the first thing to be cut to make a tablet or phone cheaply.

      • One of their phones and three of their tablets are supported by LineageOS [lineageos.org]. At this point, I've given up on first-party support from any Android vendor. None of them support the software for anything like the lifetime of the hardware, so if if you don't want it to die prematurely then third-party support is the only thing that matters.
    • mh, i paid about 60 for mine i think. It's a bit low on internal memory but i find that a plus so far. Keeps me from loading it with 90% crApps ... small, compact ... it makes calls and runs messenger apps ... i think it has a little light too which is good for a late night homecoming :p
  • Not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @02:49AM (#55152043)
    > Huawei, surpassed Apple's global smartphone sales for the first time in June and July

    Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?
    • Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 07, 2017 @04:04AM (#55152183)

      Or purchase an iPhone at all, when there are so many better options.

    • I'd hazard a guess that most people who purchase an iPhone are just doing so because they heard they were good and don't have a flying clue when the new ones are announced.
    • Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?

      Millions of people (including Apple customers) don't actually give a shit about having the latest and greatest. My father has an iPhone and it's a fine choice for him but he's never been on the latest version. He's always 1-2 editions behind whatever the latest is and he's fine with that. There are millions of people just like him. For someone like me or presumably you, you are correct - I would not buy a new iPhone three weeks before a new version is released because there is a reasonable chance I migh

      • Waiting makes even more sense if you're not buying the latest. The price of the older models drops a lot as people sell their old iPhone to buy a new one in the month or two after the release of a new model.
        • Waiting makes even more sense if you're not buying the latest.

          True but people often don't care that much and need a phone right now. If you aren't concerned about whatever is in the next one and you need a phone today then you are probably going to buy a phone today even if you could save a little by waiting. I'm not saying it's the most sensible course of action but a lot of people simply aren't that concerned with their smartphone.

    • Why would most people and Apple fans purchase an iPhone in June or July, provided that the new iPhone is to be announced a few weeks later?

      You have that backwards. Apple enjoys a 1 quarter spike in sales on the month of a new phone. Their sales are very much flat for the rest of the year with the month before a new product announcement being only marginally lower than the preceding months. Huawei overtaking Apple in June and July means they are also quite likely to beat apple January, February, March, April .... etc

      In some cases it's not even lower. Depending on the leaks and interest driven for the new phone. E.g. The quarter before the iPhon

      • Apple enjoys a 1 quarter spike in sales on the month of a new phone. Their sales are very much flat for the rest of the year with the month before a new product announcement being only marginally lower than the preceding month.

        Except that's not historically true. [statista.com] The month before has always been marginally higher. Also since Apple does not break down sales by month, how can you quantify that there is a spike in the "month of a new phone"?

        There's a reason why Apple typically announces new phones in the fall: holiday sales. Q1 for Apple will always be tend to be higher than any other quarter as it ends the holiday season.

  • Who are you? Huawei?
    • Re:Who are they? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @09:37AM (#55153173)

      Who are you? Huawei?

      It is pronounced (roughly) Wah way [wikipedia.org]. There is no "who" sound.

      It is a good name in Chinese, since the "hua" hanzi is shorthand for "China" and the "wei" hanzi can mean "action" or "achievement". So it means "Chinese action" or "Chinese achievement".

  • by Bearhouse ( 1034238 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @03:49AM (#55152145)

    I finally managed to wean my wife and kids off iPhones, which were ruining me with each upgrade cycle / theft / breakage.
    Android has finally gotten "good enough" to be a viable iPhone competitor, and the Huawei phones are great at less than half the price.

    • by green1 ( 322787 )

      "finally good enough"???? uh-huh...

      Android has been far superior to iPhone in every single way since... well, always. it's not How do you claim something is "finally good enough" to beat something that it's been better than from day 1? Apple has never caught up to Android on features, usability, performance, or price since they first launched. And so far, I've seen no indication that they ever will.

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        Android has been far superior to iPhone in every single way since... well, always

        Even back when it was going to be nothing more than a Blackberry clone? Okay, Fandroid.

  • by n329619 ( 4901461 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @04:02AM (#55152177)
    I can't wait to see a guy tries to fit a new 20" Huewai Smartphone in their pocket.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Just before a new release and in the dying days of Apple's current flagship model, some article pops up saying that they've been overtaken and their sales are dropping/tech being eclipsed by some new phone/are the cause of impending thermonuclear war.

    Compare like for like across the sales cycle. As the summary says, look again in about October'ish or whenever the new phones from Apple are available for purchase. That is - if you actually care about such things as which global position your phone manufact
    • by green1 ( 322787 )

      Considering Apple has a positively miniscule overall share of the smartphone market compared to Android, it seems rather silly to try to cling to "oh but they'll beat that one other brand one month every year!"

      I know you're desperate to claim that your team is winning, but let's face it, Apple's sup-par, over-priced, garbage just doesn't dominate the market the way you seem to think it does.

      • by mccalli ( 323026 )
        Just read this - see, this is what I'm talking about. I couldn't care less if Apple is number 1, 7, 346 or 65535. So long as it works for me and is likely not to go bankrupt, that's fine. Whereas you appear to be very heavily invested in hating a company that you likely don't use. Why? What benefit does that give you?
  • yes but still... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1@@@hotmail...com> on Thursday September 07, 2017 @06:51AM (#55152513)
    As much as I dislike almost all phone manufacturers, I will still grudgingly trust Apple more than the others when it comes to securing my private information on my devices against apps, 3rd parties, and hackers doing things that I don't know are being done. Huawei -- what do you want to bet that they take any of that shit seriously? Cmon, even Google doesn't police its apps and infrastructure well, what are the chances that a down-the-rung OEM does?
    • Yeah I only have a few Apple products and loathe all their proprietary connectors and accessories which would make it seem weird I went with an iPhone but I just haven't seen the continuing security patches in other brands. Perhaps with Google doing their own phone now that will change. If Windows phone hadn't tanked it would've been nice to see what sort of lifecycle those would have had, if phone OSs were generally supported as long as desktops I'd be much more comfortable trying whatever brand.
  • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Thursday September 07, 2017 @07:18AM (#55152607)

    It's "easy" (for lack of a better word) to sell lots of units if you don't give a shit about making a profit. The tough bit is to make a lot of profit while still selling a lot of units. So far only Apple and Samsung seem to have figured out that trick in the smartphone era.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      From what I hear, Huawei earns a reasonable profit from its phones but bleeds money elsewhere.

  • I think I can help Huawei move past Samsung into first place. All they need is a friendly, catchy slogan...something that will really speak to people. How about...

    Huawei: at least you know our back door is for more than batteries.

  • Let's see how Huawei (the name just trips-off the tongue!) fares against Apple in about a month, after the new iPhone models are debuted...

    https://www.apple.com/apple-ev... [apple.com]

    The timing of this Slashdot "News" article is quite well orchestrated. Just like the FUD Article regarding Apple's alleged "Production Issues" also seen today on Slashdot.

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