HUAWEI overtook Samsung to take the leading position in the Russian smartphone market in the second half of 2019.

During the period, HUAWEI shipped 5.4 million smartphones to Russia. This is a 145 percent increase from 2.2 million in the second half of 2018, according to the new Omdia report, Smartphone Market Report – Russia – H1 2019.

The company took a 31.7% share in the third quarter and a 29.3% share in the fourth quarter. This allowed HUAWEI to overtake market leader Samsung by 3.2 and 4.2 percentage points in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

Most of HUAWEI‘s shipments in the price-sensitive Russian market are lower-priced devices in the Honor series. The Honor 7, Honor 8, and Huawei Y series made up more than half of the company’s shipments in Russia in 2019. Further, users of affordable phones in Russia seem less concerned about the unavailability of Google services.

For the entire second half, HUAWEI shipped 600,000 more units than its rival Samsung.