Huawei maintained its lead in China's smartphone market for the second straight quarter during Q2, while Xiaomi supplanted Apple to take fourth place, according to Canalys.
Huawei shipped over 23 million handsets during the quarter, the research firm said. China's smartphone market is now firmly dominated by local vendors, with Oppo taking second place after increasing its shipments by 37% year-on-year to 21 million, and Vivo taking third place with 16 million.
Likewise, Xiaomi reported a strong 60% quarter-on-quarter growth in handset shipments to 15 million, taking over from Apple in fourth place. Xiaomi is achieving this momentum by focusing on low-cost handsets, according to Canalys research analyst Lucio Chen.
“Xiaomi still offers the best value in the Chinese market, and it remains the preferred choice for price-conscious consumers. The online channel continues to be a key route to market for Xiaomi and this quarter saw it take the lead in the 618 online sales events across online retail platforms, such as JD.com and Tmall,” he said.
The rest of China's top ten smartphone vendors, including Apple, Samsung and Meizu all suffered annual shipment declines during the quarter.
With the top five brands accounting for almost three quarters of shipments for the quarter, the smartphone market is showing signs of continuing to consolidate, Canalys said.
Total shipments also fell 3% during the quarter to 113 million, putting an end to six consecutive quarters of growth.