When you think of phones, most people automatically think of Apple’s iPhone. That’s the power of Apple’s brand.

However, Apple is no longer the top dog when it comes to sales of handsets. Nope: Huawei just knocked it down a spot to claim second place behind the mighty Samsung.

Huawei vs Apple

Huawei had a record Q2 period in which the company saw growth of 27%, allowing it to outpace Apple for the period.

“In the first half of this quarter,” notes IDC, “Huawei's P20/P20 Pro series found strong demand in the $600-$800 price segment, helping Huawei build a high profile in the market.

It added: “In the second half, with the release of its ‘GPU Turbo’ technology, Huawei continued to earn a good reputation. The Honor brand continues to be a key driver of growth for the Chinese tech giant.”

Samsung Is Still The Biggest Phone Maker

Samsung is the one to beat still, however, as it retained its position at the top of the market despite a 10% decline in shipments from last year.

Why? Simple: the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ weren’t accepted quite as well as their predecessors, and this is likely down to the fact that Samsung didn’t really do much with the design of the phones.

"Consumers remain willing to pay more for premium offerings in numerous markets and they now expect their device to outlast and outperform previous generations of that device which cost considerably less a few years ago,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

He added: “To contest this slowdown, vendors will need to focus on new innovative features and form factors combined with incentives and promotions to drive growth in many of these highly competitive markets moving forward.”

Apple Will Likely Still DOMINATE In Q4

Apple took position number three for Q2 2018. But this is pretty much par for the course with respect to Apple’s usual roll through the fiscal year.

Things die down (41 million handsets shipped) during the earlier quarters of the year, but then REALLY pick up once the new iPhones are available during Q4.

"It is worth noting that Apple moved into the top position each of the last two holiday quarters following its product refresh,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, “so it's likely we'll see continued movement among the top-ranked companies in 2018 and beyond.

Reith added: “For most markets, the ultra-high end ($700+) competition is largely some combination of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, depending on the geography, and this is unlikely to change much in the short term.

What About Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo?

Things are looking pretty positive for these guys as well, as noted by IDC’s Reith below:

“At the same time, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo are all slowly pushing their customer base upstream at a price tier slightly lower than the top three. This is an area they should all watch closely as the builds in this segment are getting increasingly more advanced.”