Huawei became the first Chinese smartphone-maker to pass the 100 million unit mark for smartphone shipments in a given year as global smartphone shipments grew in 2015, announcing last week that it shipped a record 108 million devices.
Huawei’s shipment total marked a 44 percent increase in its smartphone shipments, up from 75 million in 2014. The company also posted 70 percent revenue growth last year, leaping from $12 billion in revenue in 2014 to $20 billion in 2015.
Xiaomi, another Chinese smartphone maker aiming for the 100 million mark, missed even its bottom goalpost of 80 million shipments, according to the Wall Street Journal. TrendForce reported Xiaomi shipped just 72 million units in 2015.
According to TrendForce, the boost put Huawei into third place in terms of smartphone market share with 8.4 percent behind Apple’s 17.5 percent and Samsung’s 24.8 percent.
TrendForce said Samsung managed to hold its lead despite recording its first-ever annual shipment decline in 2015, with only 320 million units shipped for a decrease of 1.8 percent from 2014. In 2016, TrendForce has forecast that Samsung will retain its leading market share despite losses to Huawei and Lenovo. Apple is expected to remain fairly stable in second place.
In 2015, global smartphone shipments grew 10.3 percent year over year to 1.29 billion units. Of those, 539 million were from Chinese vendors, while 547 were shipped by Samsung and Apple.
“Chinese vendors were in a close match against the top two global brands (in 2015),” said TrendFroce smartphone analyst Avril Wu. “In 2016, TrendForce expects Chinese vendors to take around 45% of the global market share, with their shipments exceeding the combined shipments of Samsung and Apple. This means that nearly one out of two smartphones sold by the top ten vendors this year will come from a Chinese brand. In sum, major international vendors are now facing a tougher market situation.”
Over the course of the next year, TrendForce expects global smartphone shipment totals to rise from just under 1.3 billion in 2015 to just under 1.4 billion for the full year 2016.
Filed Under: Devices
