The global smartphone market contracted again in the second quarter, down by 3 percent year-on-year to 350 million units, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics. Samsung maintained first place with a 20 percent market share worldwide, while Huawei overtook Apple for the first time to become the world’s second largest smartphone vendor.
 
The market researcher blamed the drop in shipments on longer replacement rates, diminishing carrier subsidies, and a lack of new hardware design innovation. Huawei outperformed the market, growing an estimated 41 percent, led by a strong performance in Asian markets, while Samsung suffered from the tough competition from Asian producers and saw its shipments drop an estimated 10 percent.
 
SA said that Huawei’s mid-range Android models, such as the Nova 2S and Nova 3e, are proving "wildly popular across Asia and Europe". This gave the company a 15.5 percent share of the global market in Q2, up from 10.7 percent a year ago.
 
Apple's share also increased slightly, to 11.8 percent from 11.4 percent a year earlier, but was not enough to surpass Huawei. Xiaomi was also growing faster and came in at fourth place, with a market share of 9.1 percent versus 6.4 percent last year. Strategy Analytics estimates that Xiaomi shipped 32 million phones in the quarter.