Samsung grabs top spot in Chinese mobile race, beating out local players

Those tireless number crunchers at Canalys have come out with a new report on the global smartphone market in August to September (Q3) this year. It shows that 100-million smartphones shipped in the Greater China region (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) in that period, with that area recording the highest growth (up 64% year-on-year) anywhere in the world.

Samsung grew its market share for the third quarter to 21%, shipping nearly 19-million smartphones. Lenovo was stagnant. Apple remains in fifth, growing its market share one percentage point from Q2. It’s worth noting caution on these figures, as it’s unusual to group mainland China with Taiwan, which is sadly what Canalys does even though they’re very different markets.

Here’s the top six (with market share figures where available):

1. Samsung — 21% market share
2. Lenovo — 13% market share
3. Coolpad
4. Huawei
5. Apple — 6% market share
6. ZTE

If you’re wondering who Coolpad is, it’s a Shenzhen-based company that mostly makes budget phones, though it’s burnishing its brand with some stronger-specced flagship phones as well. Figures from Gartner show that Coolpad leapt past Apple in 2012.

Global stats
Worldwide, Samsung held its top spot in terms of smartphone shipments, remaining ahead of Apple. Over a quarter of a billion smartphones shipped worldwide in Q3 2013, up 44% Y-o-Y, with approximately 56-million of them being big-screen devices of 5-inches and above.

Nicole Peng, Canalys research director in China, notes:

There is an interesting disparity among the leading vendors across the regions. Samsung was the leading vendor across all regions except North America, where Apple held the top spot. These two vendors account for almost 70 percent of the market there. LG held onto third place in North America, while Nokia has moved from eighth to fourth place after making gains from its competitors with its new flagship products, the Lumia 1020 and 925.

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This article by Steven Millward originally appeared on Tech in Asia, a Burn Media publishing partner.