Huawei Replaces Microsoft as the Third Largest Smartphone Vendor

Microsoft may be riding high on the Windows 10 rollout but it still feels the sting of the loss caused by the purchase of Nokia a few years back. Microsoft’s acquisition of the Finnish company was speculated to be a sure hit, only it didn’t. The Lumia devices never performed as expected and neither did Nokia’s Android devices. And just last week, Microsoft wrote off Nokia $7.5 billions on Nokia, considering the company brought the once-smartphone major for $9.5 billions. Thus, what was Microsoft’s loss became Huawei’s gain as the Chinese company became the third largest mobile phone vendor, displacing Microsoft without breaking a sweat.

According to Strategy Analytics, Huawei sold 30.6 million mobile phones and gained a record 7 percent market share worldwide. The report notes that Huawei is rising in all regions of the world and it gaining stronger foothold in China, thanks to the 4G handsets such as Mate7.

Microsoft sold 27.8 million units this year, with a 50% drop in sales compared to last year. Microsoft’s plan for cross platform OS never gained major traction, nor did the fact that Apple and Samsung scooped up most of the market share due to iOS and low-budget Android smartphones respectively, helped.

According to the report, Samsung is still the largest mobile phone vendor, with Apple coming in at second position. Here is the twist though: Samsung’s share dropped from last year while the opposite happened for Apple. Apple’s quarterly report shows its growth in China while Samsung’s downfall may have resulted from the increasing popularity of Xiaomi and OnePlus in the past year.

Source: [tw-button size=”small” background=”” color=”” target=”_blank” link=”https://www.strategyanalytics.com/strategy-analytics/news/strategy-analytics-press-releases/strategy-analytics-press-release/2015/07/30/huawei-becomes-world’s-3rd-largest-mobile-phone-vendor-in-q2-2015#.VbtcN26qqkp”]Strategy Analytics[/tw-button]

Via: [tw-button size=”small” background=”” color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/31/huawei-microsoft-smartphone-sales/”]Engadget[/tw-button]