Xiaomi sees strongest third quarter growth for phone vendors

The top phone vendors all had a good third quarter.

Global sales of smartphones in the third quarter of 2017 increased 3 percent over the same period last year, according to Gartner, totaling 383 million units. The top five vendors all achieved double-digit growth, except for Apple, which experienced a 5.7 percent increase.

Samsung achieved an increase in smartphone sales of 19.3 percent.

"Renewed pushes of the newly designed Galaxy S8 , S8+ and Note 8 smartphones have brought back growing demand for Samsung smartphones, which helped it compete against Chinese manufacturers and deliver a solid performance in the quarter," Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, said in a statement. He noted in the report that the last time the company had double-digit growth was in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Xiaomi had the strongest growth, with an 80 percent increase in the third quarter. It's growth is coming more from markets outside of China, where it competes with Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. India was its highest-growth market beyond China, and there are also increasing sales in Latin America and Russia.

Oppo, Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi drove sales across emerging markets, thanks to their midprice and budget phones, which emphasize 4G connectivity and better cameras. 

The smartphone vendors with the highest number of sales to end users in the third quarter, in order, are Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi.

Gupta said in the statement that Apple's new flagship phones arriving at the end of the third quarter delayed smartphone purchases into the fourth quarter, and the holiday season will likely boost smartphones sales. He added that Gartner expects smartphones sales will reach 1.57 billion units in 2017. 

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