Global smartphone manufacturers produced a total of 350 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2016, 168 million of which were from Chinese brands, according to a report by market research firm TrendForce last Wednesday.
“The combined production volume from Chinese brands reached 168 million units in the third quarter, translating to a sequential quarterly increase of 18%,” said TrendForce smartphone analyst Avril Wu in the report.
Samsung again topped the list of the top six smartphone makers in terms of smartphone production volume in Q3 2016. The company produced about 78 million smartphones in Q3, a 1.3% QoQ increase. The impact of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone will mainly be seen in Q4, according to the report.
Apple still followed Samsung in second place. Its iPhone production volume was 45 million in Q3 2016, a 5.3% QoQ decline. Wu predicted that the iPhone production will soar upwards by the end of 2016, as much of its iPhone 7 production will be in Q4.
China’s leading smartphone maker Huawei saw a 10.3% QoQ increase, with 32 million smartphones produced in Q3. This increase occurred despite a weaker than expected performance of the P9 series, Huawei’s flagship smartphones, most likely due to fierce competition from other Chinese brands. Huawei ranked third in the list.
The report did not give specific production numbers on China’s upstart smartphone makers OPPO and vivo for the same time period, but it indicated that their quarterly production growth rates were 20.3% and 23% respectively, ranking fourth and sixth.
The 168 million combined smartphone production volume of Chinese brands was significantly higher than the 123 million for Apple and Samsung combined in Q3.
According to TrendForce’s earlier report, Chinese brands shipped 125 million smartphones in Q1 2016, surpassing the 123 million from Apple and Samsung for the first time.
Will the rise of “Made by China” continue? We will wait and see.
(Top photo from Stock-vector.com)
