Q3 global smartphone shipments record high

October 30, according to a research report released by the market research firm Strategy Analytics on Tuesday, the global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2013 were 251.4 million units, an increase of 45% year-on-year. Samsung Electronics accounts for 35% of global smartphone shipments, ranking first in the market. Huawei rose to third place.

With strong demand for LTE handsets in developed regions such as the United States and strong demand for 3G handsets from emerging markets such as China, global smartphone shipments accounted for 60% of all handset shipments in the third quarter.

Samsung’s global smartphone shipments reached a record 88.4 million units in the third quarter, an increase of 55% year-on-year. Samsung’s smartphone shipments in the third quarter were more than twice as many as Apple’s smartphone shipments.

Apple shipped 33.8 million iPhones to the global market in the third quarter, an increase of 26% from the 26.9 million in the same period last year. Apple's growth rate is about half of the 45% average growth rate of the global smartphone industry. Apple’s market share dropped from 16% in the same period last year to 13%. However, due to the large demand for the newly released Apple iPhone 5s, Apple’s iPhone shipments in the fourth quarter will rebound significantly and regain market share.

Strategy Analytics stated that Huawei is also a star of growth. Huawei's global smartphone shipments in the third quarter were 12.7 million, an increase of 67% year-on-year, and the market share was 5%, ranking third.

Woody Oh, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, explained that the popular P6 and G610 smartphones are the main factors driving Huawei's success. Huawei is still very strong in China at home, and it is not strong enough in other major markets such as the United States and European markets. If Huawei wants to seriously challenge Samsung and Apple’s two major competitors, Huawei’s demand will actively expand to the US and European markets.