A general view shows the headquarters of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, Guangdong province (Photo : Reuters/Stringer)
Huawei, the Chinese company that produces mobile phones including the Mate S, Honor 7, and P8 models passed rival Xiaomi as the top seller of smartphones in the country during the third quarter of this year, for the first time. The mobile device maker that also manufacturers networking equipment, had a gigantic year-on-year sales surge that propelled it to the number one spot in sales rankings.
Research firm Canalys reported that Huawei's sales figures skyrocketed 81 percent from Q3 of last year to this year. This was its first quarterly smartphone sales crown.
Canalys announced the news before the release of full Chinese smartphone sales figures for Q3. It will reveal how companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft ranked.
Xiaomi beat out Samsung to become China's top smartphone seller in 2014. However, it is having some hard times in its home country.
The former sales king reported sales of 61 million smartphones in China in 2014. However, it is struggling to hit its goal of 80 million units this year.
Canalys' analyst Jessie Ding made a statement that Xiaomi is trying to expand its international market share. That is due to slowing China sales.
Xiaomi's lower figures could be due to bad timing. It just launched its Redmi Note 2 and Mi 4c during the past few months, so it had to gradually boost supply to meet demand, according to Tech Crunch.
In fact, Xiaomi is valued at a healthy $45 million, according to Fortune. Its appliances such as smart televisions and air purifiers are building a Xiaomi smart home ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Huawei has been busy as a bee producing new consumer electronic products. They include a smartphone with an Apple-like 3D Touch feature, Google Nexus 6P, and Android smartwatch.
Huawei was founded in 1987.
