Hauwei’s Rapid Rise to Third Place in the Smartphone Race

Huawei has quickly grown to become one of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies since its inception in 1987, owning huge swathes of network infrastructure across different countries. It looks as if its smartphone sales are really beginning to take hold too – results this year have been great for the Chinese manufacturer, with an increase in global smartphone sales of 39% in the first half of 2015.

 

 

Now a new report from Strategy Analytics now states that Huawei has risen to take the title of the third-largest smartphone manufacturer globally in terms of number of units shipped, pipping Microsoft to the post by 0.6%. This comes after a general decline in mobile phone sales in China for other manufacturers like Xiaomi and Samsung, and a global market increase of only 2% year-on-year. This is an impressive feat given the current saturation of smartphones across the world, and when you consider that most of the competing companies have strong footholds and brand loyalty across multiple locations.

 

 

Good Performance

 

The report itself claims that “Huawei shipped 30.6 million mobile phones and captured a record 7 percent marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015″. As stated, this puts it behind only Samsung and Apple in the global numbers scheme, who shipped 89 million and 47.5 million smartphones each, garnering them 20% and 11% marketshare respectively. That means that there is an amazing 4% difference between the number of handsets that Apple and Huawei have shipped this year, although it must be noted that Huawei has released a number of phones already, with Apple having to rely on 2014’s iPhone 6 & 6+ to provide sales until its new models are announced this fall.

 

2014’s Huawei Ascend P7

 

This might come as a bit of a surprise to many readers, as Huawei doesn’t have as strong a brand in the US and Europe as it does in China and the East. There is still mistrust of Chinese brands in the US, especially evident in Huawei’s near constant scrutiny from security operatives, with a fear of political and industrial espionage or just poor quality merchandise still present, regardless of reports to the contrary. There’s a distinct lack of advertising presence in the West, which can go a long way to securing sales in a country where many consumers know of only two or three options when it comes to their next 24 month contract.

 

The Competition

 

There’s no doubt that Huawei has done very well over the last year in order to gain this lofty position, and given the calibre of the handsets that it has released, this attention is deserved. However, there are a few caveats worth keeping in mind when looking at the above report. Firstly, the ‘Microsoft’ referenced in the statistics includes all Nokia device sales (ignoring the N1 obviously), which of course includes the Lumia range, and not all analyses takes this into account, as Nokia will begin releasing non-Microsoft phones under their own name once their contract ends in 2016. Additionally, the Windows Phone line is far from dead, and is set to receive a boost in sales once Windows 10 is released for mobiles later this year, potentially alongside refreshed models.

 

 

Also, Lenovo is nowhere to be seen in this report, and this is presumably due to the fact that its numbers are treated separately to Motorola’s, which it owns. Other data, like that in this report from IDC from earlier this year, combines the sales of these companies to show that Huawei’s position is not so secure. Lenovo are also a huge presence in China, and their comfortable position in the laptop field helps spread the brand name around, building trust amongst business users. With their acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Lenovo have achieved instant access to American and European markets too, something that Huawei will be envious of, especially once the newly announced Moto G and X’s begin to ship.

 

 

Premium Smartphones, Low Prices

 

Nevertheless, things are clearly changing for Huawei, and it is easy to see why. The main alteration in the smartphone manufacturer’s strategy recently is an increased focus in high-quality flagship devices, not only in its main Huawei name, but also in its sub-brand Honor. According to Huawei itself, shipments for mid-to-high-end devices have jumped up by 70% year-on-year so far, but external quantitative evidence for this is difficult to find. It is clear however, that flagship-quality devices are featured more in the product catalogue than ever before, with recent devices like the P8 representing the relative pinnacle of the Chinese smartphone maker’s design, and a compelling alternative to many more recognizable models.

 

The Huawei P8

 

This trend is set to continue with the upcoming Mate 8, expected to be announced within 2 months. Current specifications include a 6″ 2K display, 4GB RAM, an in-house Kirin 950 octo-core CPU, fingerprint recognition, and 20MP and 8MP cameras. Previous devices like the Ascend P8/Lite, P7, and Mate 7 have generally gained positive reviews, with build-quality having improved hugely recently, one of the main considerations for consumers when spending their money. Many of the global versions of these devices are bootloader unlockable through the proprietary website and have their kernel sources released, both of which are useful for the XDA community, but unfortunately the US Qualcomm-driven units can be more difficult to modify.

 

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7

 

Cost is an important factor here too; Huawei joins the multitude of other Chinese manufacturers selling well-specced devices at relatively low prices. Its flagships tend to fall in the middle of the pack in this respect, where others like OnePlus and Elephone can really push the price down and provide impressive deals, Huawei sits with Xiaomi, Meizu and Oppo taking up the middle range. This is no bad thing, as it displays an element of craftsmanship and care for the products on offer, whilst still undercutting rivals from the US and Korea.

 

Honor

 

Smartphones released under the Honor moniker have aided Huawei’s cause too. If you’re not as familiar with this off-shoot, we recently hosted an interview to try to clear up and confusion around the name. Honor’s recent devices include the 6 and 6+ flagships, along with more budget friendly offerings like the 4X, and all have been well-received on the whole, despite being considered a little derivative. Whether the brand was created to try to detract attention away from its Chinese brother or not, it is capable of producing some well-equipped phones, at similarly reasonable prices, with a particular slant towards Western market-penetration, which is an essential factor.

 

 

Huawei Nexus

 

It’s also essentially confirmed that Huawei will be making one of this year’s Nexus phones too. They have a slight disadvantage when compared to LG, having been given the plus-sized 5.7″ display model to design. There’s a good reason for this of course; in the past, manufacturers have been given the luxury of using one of their own flagships as a physical base to build upon, and the Mate 8 should create an excellent foundation. Google are aware that Huawei can build large phones that handle well, and after the Nexus 6, that’s something that is more important than ever. The upcoming Nexus phablet is rumored to contain some bleeding-edge specs, and combined with almost exclusive access to vanilla Android M, the Chinese manufacturer should be in control of a very tempting device, and will expect a marked increase in sales as a result.

 

What could be the Ascend Mate 8

 

Tough Crowd

 

The smartphone market is still one of the most rapidly progressing in the world, and remains as competitive as ever, especially with this year’s renewed focus on bang-for-buck handsets. Close competitors Xiaomi will have a lot riding on their upcoming Mi 5, and LG will be hoping that their more easily-pocketable Nexus will prove to be successful too. Younger companies like OnePlus continue to try to break the mould and hype their low-cost/high performance options, and all of the above are snapping at Huawei’s heels in the eternal race for domination. Let’s not forget that Huawei has been here before too, with numbers from 2013 showing them holding a similar position, which faded quickly over the proceeding year.

 

Huawei should be proud of what it’s achieved so far, but it will be fully aware of how quickly these things can change in such a cut-throat marketplace. It will be very interesting to look back upon this data in the future with the benefit of hind-sight, but right now the Chinese telecoms giant look like a fairly safe bet. For a deeper look into what enabled it to get as far as it has, check out this prescient post we published back in March, which dives further into the details of what makes the huge company tick.

 

What do you think of Huawei’s global position? Is it deserved?

Let us know in the comments!

 

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OnePlus 2 Bares All in New Tear Down Gallery

Last year, the launch of the OnePlus One, dubbed ‘the flagship killer’, visibly shook the foundations of the mobile OEM sphere, with OnePlus delivering high-end flagships specs at a very affordable price. The initial launch phase was met with mixed feelings after a few controversial marketing tactics, but they eventually gave way to strong sales figures.

 

Earlier this week, OnePlus went on to unveil the successor to the One, and while the device continues to offer top-of-the-line specs at an affordable price, this year’s sales could potentially be marred by the controversial Snapdragon 810 chipset and the lack of NFC, Qi Charging and Quick Charging in the device. While these factors are deal-breakers to some, only time will tell whether or not the 2 can live up the hype created by its predecessor, and until then, reviews and teardowns are all that consumers have to go by. While plenty of first impression videos surfaced early on, the first teardown has only just surfaced thanks to Chinese website IT168, and seems to have been pulled off successfully without any hiccups.

 

As listed in the specs, the OnePlus 2 packs a 1080p LTPS screen at 401ppi and a Snapdragon 810 64bit octa-core processor, with one model packing 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and the other packing 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, all backed by a non-removable 3300mAh battery. While the extra RAM certainly contributes towards the ill-given ‘2016 Flagship Killer’ title, the presence of the S810 and the usage of a 1080p screen certainly speak otherwise.  In the camera department, the 2 packs a 13MP camera with OIS, dual-LED, dual tone flash, and laser Autofocus, and a 5MP camera on the front. This contradicts their “flagship killer” title, given that most 2015 flagships are already packing better cameras.

 

Internals aside, the OnePlus 2 sports only a metallic trim around the device, as opposed to earlier reports stating that it would come with a full metal body. The front of the device is nondescript save for the fingerprint scanner below the display, resembling Samsung’s home buttons. The back sports the camera module placed considerably lower than it was on the One, with the OnePlus logo sitting squarely below it. The device is fairly light and compact for a 5.5″ metallic device, measuring in at 151.8 x 74.9 x 9.9mm, and 175 grams. Check out the gallery below for the detailed teardown procedure!

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Focus – An Attractive But Raw Gallery Replacement

Focus is an attractive new app built by XDA members Liam Spradlin and Francisco Franco, the latter being well-known in the forums for his kernels. Focus aims to completely replace your gallery app with some neat tricks, but at a potentially risky time considering that Google has thrown its weight into the photo-organization arena. This is a first draft of the app of course, but we’ll pitch it against its main rivals here, namely the popular QuickPic and the aforementioned Google Photos.

 

 

The first thing you’ll notice after installing Focus is its stripped back interface; this is a good thing on the whole, keeping functions clear and navigation options obvious. There’s a very short learning curve when using this app, and the first-use pop ups are informative but not annoying, another good balancing act to pull off. The UI definitely takes influence from Material Design as the forum post mentions, but unfortunately lacks depth, falling a little short of the ‘study of paper and ink’ that Google encourages. There are no heightened buttons for example, with flattened icons being a general theme, and animations being a little inconsistent. For clarity, a user might expect pictures to leap forward when touched for example, where in Focus the page flits to the right to provide you with the full-screen image, which is slightly counter-intuitive, especially considering that swiping at that point scrolls between pictures and doesn’t return you to the preview screen.

 

 

Pictures are arranged initially under headings derived from the folders where they’re stored and the date and time that they were taken. You can either swipe horizontally through your photos straight from that view, or choose just a folder to fill up your screen in order to browse more easily, which gives you quick access or good browsing functionality depending on what you need. Again, none of this is difficult to work out on first use, the clean appearance and hints help hugely. Holding down on a photo naturally begins the multi-selection dialogue, where you’re given options to either delete or tag your chosen photos (which we’ll come on to later). The main menu slides in from the left on the home screen much as you’d expect, and at the top right-hand corner you’re presented with quick access to the camera itself.

 

 

Google Photos has a few extra tricks up its sleeve when it comes to navigation however, with an intuitive pinch-to-zoom function available when viewing all of your photos, which filters between time-frames and allows you to jump from daily to yearly summaries very rapidly. Photos’ multi-select can also be triggered by a nifty press-hold-drag gesture, where after long-pressing on a chosen picture, the user can drag their finger across the screen to select every photo between the gesture’s start and end point. QuickPic is a little left out here, providing only folders in a fixed lay out, but on the other hand, animations are handled in the proper fashion, describing exactly where the user is within the app with simple subtlety. A scroll bar is also offered, which is necessary considering the lack of any pinch-to-zoom gesture to edit picture preview size.

 

 

Focus tries to offer some added features however, most of which are genuinely useful. Front and center is a method of adding personalized tags to your photos, which can be a great help if you’re looking to try to organize a large collection outside of the normal methods of location and time-stamp. A number of tags are present to begin with, essentially encouraging you to arrange your shots by genre, like in the screenshot below. The option is also given to add your own custom tags, like ‘Auntie Mary’s birthday’ or ‘Sunny Beach Time’, giving you an album fully tailored to your needs. This is definitely a feature that could come in handy, although given the size of many users’ photo libraries it could take significant work to try to tackle this kind of organization, so perhaps it would be most appreciated on new phones (or fresh ROMs). It should be pointed out that there’s no indication of whether this tag is saved to the file itself, and therefore viewable outside of the app.

 

 

Another advertised advantage is the ability to lock a picture to your screen with a PIN, similar to screen pinning for apps on Lollipop. This allows the user to pick a picture, type in a PIN, and then hand their mobile to a friend, safe in the knowledge that their swiping left or right won’t grant access to any other pictures until the PIN is re-entered. This is unique as far as we’re aware, and makes a lot of sense, although the PIN does need to be re-entered each time, so a global PIN set from within the main menu might have been a slightly better implementation. Personally, I can’t honestly say that I’d use the functionality much, if at all, but for those with prank-prone buddies, or who like to show off their libraries at parties, this could be a god send.

 

 

There are a couple of other more minor options too, like the ability to switch between a dark and light theme, and an exquisitely specific ‘details’ screen, that can display information ranging from the camera model a photograph was taken on, to the shutter-speed and focal-length, and really any other piece of metadata that the picture file contains. Google Photos integration is promised in the upcoming v1.1 update, however it’s not clear yet quite what that entails and how deep the functionality would go. One thing that is missing in this initial version is the ability to link to and browse through any online galleries like Facebook or Picasa, which does stick out when compared to Photos or QuickPic. Cloud storage is becoming  increasingly popular, and users are now sharing their pictures across more services than ever before, so hopefully this is included later down the line.

 

 

The app is available for free on the Play Store, however, almost all of the features mentioned above are part of the ‘Premium’ package, available through an In-App Purchase. At $3.79 the upgrade won’t break the bank, but it will be up to the individual to justify this expense, as without this investment the app doesn’t offer much beyond a nice-looking but extremely basic experience. Developers have to make money of course, and as a plus, IAPs mean that there aren’t any advertisements to break up the UI, but when looking at the bountiful and free alternatives available out there, some users may not agree with the paid model’s benefits.

 

 

One important point to consider is Focus’s performance. We noticed some sluggish scrolling on mid-range devices, and assumed it was purely a sign of slow storage read speeds, but after testing on modern high-end devices, it was clear that this wasn’t the whole story. Looking at the examples of apps mentioned earlier, we’ve taken shots of the GPU activity whilst scrolling between pictures at a regular pace. Visual GPU Rendering can quickly give you a representation of how much time it takes to render the frames of a UI window relative to Google’s 16-ms-per-frame benchmark. If you’re not familiar with the type of data below, it can be summarized by focusing on the horizontal green line in particular – every time the colored bars jump above the green line the user experiences a bit of lag. We tried the test a few times on the available devices, and the below screenshots are indicative of the kind of results we saw. This isn’t a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination, but it is noticeable and it ruins the polished feel of the app, especially when you’re used to something like Photos on a high-end handset.

 

 

That wraps it up for this small review of Focus. Despite the negative points described above, the app comes across quite well, especially if you’ve made the decision to purchase the upgrades. Its strongest point on balance is its UI, which is simple and doesn’t waste the user’s time and patience, and with a bit of work could be as good as (if not better than) Google’s own offering. That really is the key here – this is a first release for Focus minus the testing builds, and that is eminently tangible throughout the experience. Once navigational consistency is provided with visual clues, the performance issues are ironed out, and a few more features are available, this will become a compelling competitor, and will deserve to advance quickly to the top of the Play Store rankings. At the moment the developers should be proud of their work, as it’s a great start, but there will be some work to do if Focus is to be considered on its own merits.

 

You can pick up Focus for free on Google Play, or head straight over to the forum to sideload the APK and leave your own feedback for the developers.

 

What do you think of Focus? Let us know in the comments!

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