ASUS and vivo are the fastest growing smartphone brands, says Counterpoint

2015 has already been an eventful year for the smartphone industry. Major bands, such as Samsung, HTCand Sony, have struggled to rebuild their profitability, while India has quickly become one of the most competitive markets in the world. There’s a lot to mull over, but fortunately Counterpoint Research has published its data for Q2 2015 which neatly summarised how the smartphone market is looking this year so far.

Globally, smartphone shipments shipments are up again and there has been a big growth in LTE adoption. Half of all handsets shipped this year are LTE capable, with China seeing a fourfold increase and India witnessing 12 fold growth in LTE shipments this year.

In terms of market share, Samsung remains the top player, despite a year of struggling profits. The Korean giant holds 21 percent of the global smartphone market, followed by Apple on 14 percent. HUAWEI has been one of the big winners in the past twelve months and company now sits comfortably in third place with 9 percent of the market. Xiaomi and ZTE make up the fourth and fifth spots with a five percent share each.

Although brands like HUAWEI and Xiaomi are grabbing lots of headlines for pinching market share, ASUS is actually the fastest growing smartphone brand, having seen its shipment increase by 500 percent compared with one year ago. The Zenfone 2 has been particularly popular in a number of markets. vivo has seen similar gains, with shipments growing fourfold over last year, although neither of these companies make it into the top 5.

Regional markets look quite a bit different than the global picture, although Samsung remains the dominant brand in most of the markets. Europe and Latin America remain firmly in Samsung’s camp, while in the US, Apple is the largest manufacturer with a third of the share, followed by Samsung, LG and ZTE. Speaking of Apple, the company now apparently generates more revenue that all other smartphone manufacturers combined, as long as you exclude Samsung.

Asia remains by far the most diverse market in the world, with four major manufacturers all capturing between 10 and 15 percent of the market each. As we have seen before, growing demand in the Indian and Chinese markets is drawing in a large number of manufacturers all looking to secure themselves a share.

Compared with last year, Samsung has certainly taken a hit in a few of its previously dominant regions, which has been reflected in the company’s poor financial performance. Apple has overtaken Samsung in the US and a range of companies have managed to close the gap in Asia and also slightly in the Middle East too. However, smaller brands are having a mixed time globally. While HUAWEI, ASUS and vivo are doing well, Lenovo/Motorola, LG and Sony are struggling to break out into larger market shares.

You can check out the full infographic at the source link below.