Huawei is now the second biggest Android brand in Europe

Huawei’s global success over recent months has been well documented. In its homeland it’s just overtaken Xiaomi as the biggest smartphone vendor, and on a global scale it’s only behind Apple and Samsung in terms of shipped devices. Much of that global success, it seems, is due to its performance in Europe where it has multiple devices ranging from low to high end and is shipping them by the bucket load…

A fresh report from Kantar Worldpanel this morning states that the Chinese manufacturer climbed above Sony, HTC and Motorola to become the second most-popular Android OEM in Europe’s big five markets. In just twelve months, the smartphone maker has risen 4 places from sixth, and was only outsold by Samsung in Europe’s main markets in Q3 this year. For reference, those five main markets are Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

“Thanks to an increase in marketing focus and the weakening of brands such as Sony, HTC, and Motorola, Huawei was able to rise to second place among Android brands in Europe from sixth place in 2014,” reported Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “With a wider portfolio of products ranging from the high-end all the way to the low-end, Huawei made particular inroads in Spain and Italy.”

Whichever way you look at it, this is impressive from Huawei. Up until recently, the brand was pretty much unknown in Europe. Now, this brand with a name no one recognizes is selling more phones than HTC, Sony, LG and Motorola.

Much of Huawei’s success in Europe is down to the rise of the Honor brand. The company’s sub-brand offers a great experience at a low price point. The Honor 7 is the company’s most recent ‘flagship’ and still costs less than £250, despite having some impressive specifications. We reviewed it recently and were very impressed by its value for money.

It’ll be interesting to see if Huawei’s momentum continues to grow, especially with the launch of the recent Nexus 6P. How long before the manufacturer is shipping as many phones as Apple or Samsung? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, Huawei will be a big-name manufacturer in the mind-share of average consumers very soon.