Huawei overtakes Apple to become world's No. 2 smartphone seller

A recent research firm IDC, Canalys and IHS Markit show that the Chinese smartphones Huawei reached a major milestone by overtaking Apple.

Beating the sales figure of Apple, Huawei also narrowed the gap with the market leader Samsung.

Huawei overtook Apple despite the American multinational's quarterly profits escalating to near $ 1 trillion.

Despite selling fewer phones Apple's profit had jumped more than 30 per cent to $11.5 billion in the recently ended quarter.

Huawei has managed to get ahead of rivals by selling more feature-packed phones, analysts said.

According to IHS and Strategy Analytics, Huawei grabbed more than 15 per cent of the global smartphone market over April-June, overtaking Apple's roughly 12 per cent and just behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's nearly 20 per cent share.

While Samsung's sales reached 70 million last quarter, Huawei sold around 54 million smartphones. 

The Chinese smartphone gained in Europe and also expanded its lead back home.

The Chinese market is key for Huawei as it has come under fire from the United States, Australia and other nations over concerns it could facilitate Chinese government spying.

The company has been virtually shut out from the United States with no major carriers selling its smartphones.

Huawei has denied it facilitates spying and has said it is a private company not under Chinese government control and not subject to Chinese security laws overseas.

(With inputs from Reuters)