HUAWEI Technologies is set to narrow its market share gap with Apple Inc to under 5 percentage points in the global smartphone market in 2017, research firms said yesterday.

Sales of global smartphones are seen at more than 1.44 billion units this year. Huawei is estimated to take a 11.7 percent share of the market to follow Apple’s 15.7 percent, representing a 4-percentage-point gap in market share this year, down from a 5.1-percentage-point gap last year, said TrendForce.

Chinese handset makers are gaining and consolidating market shares globally, especially in the middle and high-end segments, and becoming competitive rivals of Samsung and Apple, said Anthony Scarsella, analyst at International Data Corp.

Huawei, which released its flagship model P10 with Leica camera and a curved screen at the world’s biggest mobile fair Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, aims to become the world’s No. 1 vendor by 2020, the Shenzhen-based company said previously.

BOE, a Beijing-based display maker, was No. 1 for the first time in sales of large LCD (liquid crystal display) units in January with a 22.3 percent share, said IHS Markit.

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