A new report from Chinese Market Intelligence firm IDC has now predicted that Apple will soon be beaten out by yet another Android smartphone manufacturer in terms of global market share – Huawei. If the prediction turns out to be accurate, Huawei would effectively knock the iPhone manufacturer out of the number two spot overall. As to when, exactly, that is likely to happen, IDC’s analysis says the shakeup could take place within the next one to two years. That’s following last years market share report for the mobile market and this year’s Q2 reports. The more recent of those reports places Huawei at 11.3-percent, as compared to Apple’s 12-percent global market share, while last year Huawei only had 9.4-percent of the market cornered – around 2.5-percent behind the iPhone maker. That’s a gain of around 1.8-percent for Huawei over the course of two quarters. With regard to how many smartphones that actually represents, the numbers equate to Huawei being behind by around 4 million smartphones at the global level at last report.
The prediction from IDC shouldn’t be too surprising since Huawei actually managed to beat out Apple quite recently to become the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer for the first time, according to earlier reports. Following the highs and lows over the past several months, it makes sense that Apple could hold out for a bit longer, with regard to overall leadership. The company’s next flagship, for example, hasn’t been released yet and Apple’s numbers will almost certainly bounce back up by a considerable amount following that. However, it appears as though Huawei’s upward trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future, while Apple’s market share numbers continue to decline on a global scale as compared to the market gains of Android as a mobile operating system.
The shake-up, meanwhile, would also represent the second time a handset running Google’s Android OS managed to beat out the once-dominant, smartphone manufacturer in terms of market share. Samsung recently became the leader in global market share, stealing the throne from Apple and becoming the most profitable mobile manufacturer around – thanks largely to its chip sales. Huawei’s gains, in the meantime, appear poised to push the iPhone maker back further, possibly paving the way for further companies in the future.