Three Chinese companies were among the world's top five smartphone vendors in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a report released by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
According to the report, Chinese smartphone makers Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO took the third, fourth and fifth place in the worldwide smartphone market during the fourth quarter of 2017 (Q4 2017) in terms of market share and the number of units shipped.
Huawei was the best performer of the three big Chinese market players, shipping 41.0 million units in Q4 2017. Despite this performance, the number of units shipped by Huawei was down 9.7% from the 45.4 million shipped in Q4 2016.
Xiaomi took the fourth spot in the world rankings, shipping 28.1 million units and doubling its market share from 3.3% to 7% compared to Q4 in 2016.
"Xiaomi has continued to focus on growth outside China, with India and Russia being two of its largest markets," according to the IDC report. Xiaomi was only company in the top five that did not experience a year-on-year decline in sales in Q4 2017.
Meanwhile, OPPO slipped from fourth to fifth position in the rankings. The company shipped 27.4 million smartphones in Q4 2017. OPPO has focused on gaining a foothold in other Asian countries including India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The top position in the global smartphone market was captured by Apple, which shipped 77.3 million units in Q4 2017.
Samsung, who lead the rankings for the first three quarters of 2017, lost its crown to Apple in the last quarter of last year. The Korean giant shipped 74.1 million units in Q4 2017, down 4.4% compared to the previous year.
A total of 403.5 million smartphones were shipped by vendors globally during Q4 2017. This is a 6.3% decline compared to the 430.7 million shipments in the last quarter of 2016. But despite this end of year decline, the market saw a total of 1.472 billion units shipped in 2017, a figure relatively unchanged from the 1.473 billion units shipped in 2016.
