Huawei Is Now Europe’s Second-Favourite Android Brand

Huawei has enjoyed a major surge in sales that has pushed the company to become Europe’s second-largest selling Android brand, according to analysts.

The Chinese manufacturer’s rapid recent growth has helped it surpass the likes of LG and HTC to grab second spot in terms of Android-powered devices sold in Europe’s ‘big five’ markets (Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain), according to data from industry analysts Kantar Worldpanel.

Only Samsung, the world’s largest phone maker, sold more Android devices in Europe than Huawei, the report found, including 53 percent of all Android sales in Great Britain alone.

Rise

“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 (such as the Mate S, pictrued left) ranging from the high-end all the way to the low-end, Huawei made particular inroads in Spain and Italy.”

Huawei’s most recent financial results revealed that sales increased by 30 percent year on year to 175.9 billion yuan (£18.1bn), as its smartphones, networking equipment and carrier products all saw strong growth across the world.

The company had made it its goal to ship 100 million smartphones across the world by the end of 2015, having sold nearly 10 million smartphones every month since May. Recent Gartner figures showed that Huawei held 5.4 percent of the global smartphone market share in the first quarter of the year.

iOS Growth

Overall, Android took 51.4 percent of the Great British smartphone market for the three months ending in September 2015, ahead of iOS on 38.3 percent, Windows Phone on 9.8 percent, and BlackBerry on 0.5 percent.

This marks a major change from the previous month, where Android (54.1 percent) and Windows Phone (11.3 percent) took share away from iOS (33.7 percent). However, since then Apple has begun sales of its latest iPhone 6S and 6S Plus devices, helping it gain millions of new sales across the world, including 13 million sales in its first three days.

“In Great Britain, iOS held the strongest share ever recorded in a September quarter since we began tracking this market,” said Milanesi, “Next month all eyes will be on Apple’s performance in the U.S. and China, as many observers continue to doubt the size of the remaining opportunity for Apple.”

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