Chinese Smartphones Half of World Unit Shipment, Samsung and Apple Still on Top

China shipped half of the world's phone units in 2017, while Samsung and Apple remain dominant in the market.

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In the latest IC Insights report, 7 of the world's top ten smartphone makers are headquartered in China, two are from South Korea - Samsung and LG, and one from the U.S. — Apple. China's Huawei ranked third on the list in terms of unit shipments. [caption id="attachment_8928" align="aligncenter" width="720"] 2015-2017 Major Smartphone Leaders. Image Source: IC Insights.[/caption] OPPO, at fourth place, and Vivo, at fifth place, both doubled their unit shipments from 2015 through 2017. It shipped 213.1 million in 2017. [caption id="attachment_8675" align="aligncenter" width="720"] vivo NEX. Image Source: Pandaily[/caption] Samsung and Apple dominated the smartphone market in the same duration and these two companies shipped over one-half billion smartphones in 2017 with their combined smartphone unit marketshare increasing to 36 percent at one point.

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Xiaomi, the smartphone manufacturer ranking 6th, displayed the highest growth rate of 73 percent, among the top-12 smartphone suppliers. Meanwhile, another three Chinese suppliers - LeEco/Coolpad, ZTE, and TCL all saw their smartphone shipments fall by more than 20 percent in the past year. Apple's total shipments stayed at a constant last year when the world's smartphone units were at 1.5 billion. The IC Insights prediction of smartphone shipments in 2018 will rise by 2 percent, to 1.53 billion units, while smartphone unit shipments are predicted to grow by less than 10 percent through 2021. Featured Image source: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images