Strategy Analytics: Huawei overtook Microsoft/Nokia to become world’s 3rd largest mobile phone vendor

Strategy Analytics has issued its latest estimates of global mobile phone shipments, and reports that Huawei overtook Microsoft (which incorporates the Nokia-designed Lumia) last quarter to become the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world. The company saw its shipments grow almost 50% to 30.6M units, contrasting strongly with an overall industry growth rate of just 2%.

Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei shipped 30.6 million mobile phones and captured a record 7 percent marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015. Huawei is rising fast in all regions of the world, particularly China where its 4G models, such as the Mate7, are proving wildly popular. Huawei has finally overtaken Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever.”

The company shared some earnings results earlier this month, showing a 30% increase in revenue and claiming to be on track to hit 100M sales this year.

Samsung retained the number one slot, but saw its market share slip from 22.3% to 20.5% on disappointing Galaxy S6 sales. Samsung earlier revealed an 8% drop in profits, the fifth year running it has reported a decline in profitability …

Apple was the other big winner, the research firm estimating that the company’s market share climbed from 8.2% in Q2 2014 to 10.9% in the same quarter this year. Apple revealed in its latest quarterly earnings that it saw iPhone sales climb 35% year-on-year to 47M units.

Strategy Analytics also noted that while Xiaomi remains a major player in China, its growth rate is slowing in both local and international markets, and is now in danger of losing its top-five position.

Huawei yesterday saw other good news from IDC in the tablet market, estimating that it more than doubled its year-on-year shipments to 1.6M units.