CHINA: Just a few days ago, we told you about a report from researcher Canalys that mentioned how Apple was knocked off its perch above all other smartphone manufacturers in China during the second quarter. Now, a new report from Sina uses a completely different methodology to come up with different rankings. According to Sina, Xiaomi remained on top during the second quarter in China with a 31.7% market share of smartphone shipments in the country. That was down 3.5 percentage points from the second quarter last year.
The Honor brand belonging to Huawei was second with 21% of the market. That was a gain of 4.2pp year-over-year. The remaining Huawei brands accounted for 3.3% of second quarter smartphone shipments in China, good enough for eighth place. Combined, Huawei was responsible for 24.3% of smartphone shipments in China during the three month period, which would have resulted in a second place listing.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the huge gain made by LeTV. With phones like the highly spec’d LeTV Max, the company saw its share of the Chinese market go from a miniscule .1% during last year’s April-June period, to 4.5% this year. That made LeTV the fifth largest shipper of intelligent handsets in China last quarter. According to Sina, Apple was barely ahead of LeTV with 4.9% of the market. Meizu was in third with a 9.8% share.
The rankings show you how fluid things are in China. A company that was practically unknown last year is now battling with Apple for a spot in the top five.
