Chinese Brands Hold 48 Percent Smartphone Market Share Globally: Counterpoint

While overall global smartphone shipments grew 3 percent Year-over-Year (YoY) reaching 365 million units in the second quarter of 2017, Chinese brands have emerged as the dominant force, making a dent in Apple's market share, a report said on Wednesday.

According to the market research firm Counterpoint Research, Chinese smartphone brands marked a record 48 percent market share worldwide with India, South Asia and Africa remaining as key focus geographies.

Xiaomi (60 percent), Vivo (45 percent), Oppo (33 percent) and Huawei (20 percent) were the fastest growing brands with increasing overseas smartphones shipments (YoY).

"Chinese brands have been successful in not only cementing their positions in their home country but also managing to expand beyond mainland China at the same time," said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint Research, in a statement.

"They have backed their channel strategies with aggressive marketing spend in both above-the-line and below-the-line campaigns," he added.

According to Counterpoint, these brands will continue to expand their reach beyond China during the second half of this year.

Samsung led the smartphone market by volume with a market share of 22 percent. However, its shipments recorded only a marginal growth of 4 percent annually during the quarter.

Apple's global smartphone market share declined due to seasonality.

On Tuesday, Apple revealed third quarter results, saying iPhone sales were up 1.6 percent to 41.03 million. The Cupertino-based tech giant sold 40.4 million iPhones a year earlier.

"Demand for older generation iPhones remained strong in markets like Russia, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and other fast-growing markets," Pathak noted.

"Many users are likely to delay their purchase of a new iPhone in anticipation of the much awaited iPhone 10th anniversary edition which is expected to be a super-cycle for Apple - though supply-side challenges might limit the initial volumes available," he added.

Apple's decline in China continues as Oppo, Vivo and Huawei posted record Q2 2017 shipments in the country.