Huawei Closing in on Apple, Aims to Become World's Largest Smartphone Maker Within Four Years

Datalinks said:
It won't be difficult if Apple keeps releasing the same phones year after year after year...
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We get it, you want a round phone, or maybe a triangle. Apple has never released the same phone twice, the guts are always substantially improved. The outside looks the same - why is that a problem? Are you afraid maybe someone might not notice that you bought the newest one?
 
Sales figures isn't everything. You need sales volumes and profit. And Apple seems to have a stranglehold on the latter.
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You just need to be profitable ... put out a product that meets the consumer's needs ... winner, winner, chicken dinner.
 
MacRumors said:



Since 2011, the worldwide smartphone market has been dominated by Apple and Samsung. The elusive third-best spot, meanwhile, has failed to be held down by one vendor for an extended period of time, changing hands between Nokia, BlackBerry, Xiaomi, and Huawei over the past six years.

huawei-honor.jpg

In 2014, it looked like low-priced Chinese vendor Xiaomi had firmly cemented its position as the world's third-largest smartphone maker, but fewer than three years later, it has fallen out of the top five or even six vendors, according to the latest quarterly data from research firms IDC and TrendForce.

Xiaomi's recent decline can be attributed to a limited physical retail presence and increased competition from Huawei's lower-end Honor brand. Xiaomi continues to avoid selling premium smartphones--its most expensive model costs around $400--and some of its Mi smartphones have received mediocre reviews.

Huawei has since dethroned Xiaomi as not only China's largest smartphone maker, but the world's third largest. And now, the company has its eyes set on challenging Apple and Samsung for the crown, reports Fortune.

"We want to grow into top two market share, and, in the future, top one by 2021," Huawei's consumer head Richard Yu told the publication.

In the first quarter of 2016, Huawei sold ten times as many smartphones as Apple in Finland, according to research firm IDC. In Europe, it is now the top-selling smartphone maker in Portugal and the Netherlands and the second biggest in Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Spain, according to the report.

But if Huawei ever wants to truly challenge Apple and Samsung, it will have to conquer a key market where it has failed to make a dent: the United States. Huawei does not even crack the list of top ten smartphone makers in the country, trailing behind smaller rivals such as BLU and OnePlus.

It doesn't help that Huawei lacks agreements with the U.S.'s "big four" carriers, namely Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. U.S. customers have to resort to retailers such as Best Buy or Walmart, or Huawei's direct sales website, to purchase one of their devices, reducing the brand's visibility in the country.

For its sake, Huawei appears to recognize it needs to take a new approach to the American market:Apple reported sales of 45.5 million iPhones in the third quarter, while IDC estimates Huawei shipped 33.6 million smartphones on the quarter, so the Chinese company is within striking range. But whether it can continue its momentum, or fall back into obscurity like Xiaomi, is something only time will tell.

Article Link: Huawei Closing in on Apple, Aims to Become World's Largest Smartphone Maker Within Four Years
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At the pace the company moves they will pass Apple up in much less than 4 years. Apple releases something and then waits an entire year before updating/removing features.
 
Abazigal said:
Sales figures isn't everything. You need sales volumes and profit. And Apple seems to have a stranglehold on the latter.
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True, bit when I'm being a consumer and not a stockholder or a business analyst, I don't care how much profit a company is getting, I care about how much phone I'm getting for the money.

From that standpoint, I should be critical that Apple has the highest margin, and if a company were able to give me the same experience for cheaper, with less profit, I would be more than happy to buy their product.

Unfortunately, I'm heavily into the Apple ecosystem and the alternatives are unappealing, at least from the OS side.
 
As I'm from the Netherlands and seeing lots of people having huawei I can tell you that those phones are very well built and equipped with cameras at least on par with iPhone. Software is latest android with an iOS skin. You can't tell the difference from iOS 10. Google now and services like maps are way better then Apple's offerings. At least google does understand Dutch very well. Also take in consideration huaweis got better screens than iPhone plus (same as Samsung s7 and s7 edge) also they had a dual camera 6 months prior the iPhone 7. 3 years ago nobody noticed huawei here and now they're outselling iPhones. Also far less expensive than Apple. People are starting to notice here you pay a lot of Apple tax and Apple is fast getting yesterday news. If I was mr Cook I would be worried indeed. Huawei delivers where Apple is stalling.
 
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