Smartphone shipments grow in third quarter
 

Global sales of smartphones reached 332 million in the third quarter, a 9.1 percent increase over the second calendar quarter this year.

That’s according to market research firm Trendforce, which also said that Huawei shipped 10 million of its units during the quarter, in line with its own projections.

But Trendforce analyst Avril Wu said that smartphone shipments are expected to be eak until the middle of 2016, due to downturn in the global economy.

She said that emerging markets including Southeast Asia and India are the major “battlegrounds” for the different vendors, as the developed markets reach saturation. And the increasing competition will mean profits will fall.

Trendforce believes that Samsung will show negative results largely due to Chinese competitors, with Apple remaining strong.

While it is still the top smartphone brand in the third quarter, Samsung will see the first ever decline of annual smartphones this year.

The top five vendors by shipments worldwide and the top five Chinese smartphone brands are shown in the Trendforce charts, below.

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