A new report from market research firm Strategy Analytics (via Sina Tech) reveals that Xiaomi has surpassed Huawei for the first time to emerge as the top-third smartphone brand in the month of February in terms of global smartphone sales.
The report credits Xiaomi’s online-centric smartphone sales for making this possible. According to the report, Huawei shipped 5.5 million smartphones in February whereas Xiaomi shipped 6 million devices during the same period. To put that in perspective, Huawei shipped 12.2 million handsets in January while Xiaomi made 10 million smartphone shipments in the same month.
The numbers were low across the board, mainly due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell 38 percent year-on-year from 99.2 million units in February (2019) to 61.8 million in February (2020), making it the lowest fall ever.
“February 2020 saw the biggest fall ever in the history of the worldwide smartphone market. Supply and demand of smartphones plunged in China, slumped across Asia, and slowed in the rest of the world. It is a period the smartphone industry will want to forget.”, said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics in a statement.
Samsung topped the table with 18.2 million shipments, followed by Apple at 10.2 million. Other Chinese companies like Oppo and Vivo also recorded low number of shipments. Take a look at the table below for the exact numbers.
With more and more countries nearing lockdown to reduce the spread of coronavirus, the smartphone sales numbers are likely to go further low next month before it gets any better.
