News

Samsung is still the top smartphone vendor in the world

Published

August 4, 2017

Daniel Morial

The numbers are out! The International Data Corporation (IDC) published their preliminary results for the second quarter of 2017, and it seems like Chinese smartphone brands are inching closer to the top.

Still at the number one spot is Samsung with a 23.3 percent market share and 79.8 million shipments. Playing a major role in the success are the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The victory of the South Korean company is not solely dependent on their flagships, as the mid-range Galaxy A and budget Galaxy J series are also doing well for other markets. With the Galaxy Note 8 announcement later this month, Samsung could look forward to greater numbers for the third quarter.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy S8

Second in line is Apple with a 12 percent market share and 41 million shipments. While the Cupertino company has yet to unveil its new smartphone, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are doing well in the high-end market. Compared to last year, the new iPhones are doing better than the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, but with just a marginal growth of 1.5 percent year-over-year.

Not far behind is Huawei with a 11.3 percent market share and shipment posting at 38.5 million. Huawei is currently the top Chinese smartphone brand worldwide with a growing grasp of the European market. With a year-over-year change of a positive 19.6 percent, Huawei is on its way to overthrow Apple’s place. Driving the sales of the company is its flagship P10 series, Mate 9 phablet, and the more affordable Honor series.

Huawei P10

OPPO remains in the fourth position with a 8.1 percent market share and 27.8 million shipments. Just like with Huawei, OPPO has gained a positive 22.4 percent growth as it expands outside of China. OPPO is already doing well in Southeast Asia thanks to its marketing stand on camera performance — with a big focus on selfies.

Back in the top five is Xiaomi with a modest 6.2 percent market share and 21.2 million shipments. Compared to the same period last year, Xiaomi has the biggest growth among smartphone brands with a 58.9 percent year-over-year change. Even in China, the company made a big jump due to their bang-for-buck devices. It shouldn’t be a surprise; we all know that Xiaomi offers the best hardware for every price segment.

While these five brands enjoy growth, overall smartphone shipments declined by 1.3 percent compared to the same quarter of 2016 and also down by 0.8 percent from the first quarter of this year. Have people started to crawl away from smartphones? Well, that’s highly unlikely, unlike the descending trend of consumer tablets.

[irp posts=”17020″ name=”Chinese phone brands are (unsurprisingly) taking over Asia”]

Related Topics:Apple Huawei OPPO Samsung Xiaomi

News

iPhone 17 is the best-selling phone of 2026 so far

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 series didn’t make the top ten list.

Published

May 7, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

With more than a quarter of the year done and dusted, it’s time to figure out which smartphone has taken the early lead in the charts. According to the numbers, it can’t get any clearer. The iPhone 17 is currently dominating the charts.

According to Counterpoint Research, the bestselling smartphone in the world as of the first quarter is the base iPhone 17. The model took 6 percent of the global share in unit sales. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pro took the second and third spots, respectively. Only a bit surprisingly, Apple rounded out its quarter with the iPhone 16 taking the number 6 slot.

The stranger thing is Samsung’s presence on this list. The South Korean brand took five spots on the top 10 list. However, none of them are of the Galaxy S26 series. All of them are from the Galaxy A series: in order, Galaxy A07 4G, A17 5G, A56, A36, and A17 4G. (The Galaxy S26 series narrowly missed the top 10.)

That makes nine. The final spot was taken by the Xiaomi Redmi A5.

Going only by the last two paragraphs, you’ll likely assume that the midrange market is rightfully dominating the charts in the months following the Christmas season. However, the iPhone 17’s dominance confirms that Apple has not lost its stride.

Plus, with the iPhone 17e only just having launched, Apple might continue its run well into 2026.

Apps

Google, on Android adopting Liquid Glass: “Not happening!”

Just in case you were wondering.

Published

May 7, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Google is slightly moving away from Material Design. Last week, a set of icon changes saw Android adding splashes of gradients to its formerly flat app icons. To poke fun at Android’s move away from flat designs, a user on X created a mockup of Android running Apple’s Liquid Design. Google, however, had a response ready in the chamber.

On X, @Micetor made a mockup of Android, specifically on the upcoming Pixel 11, using Apple’s latest Liquid Design aesthetics. It looked much like what an iPhone does except with Google’s icons and fonts.

Clearly, Google does not need to reply to any unsubstantiated mockups about its ecosystem. But they still did.

Sameer Samat, Google’s head for the Android ecosystem, personally replied to the mockup with a simple rebuttal: “Not happening!”

Not happening! Y'all are wild. 😂

— Sameer Samat (@ssamat) May 5, 2026

Despite using the design language for over a decade, Google does not want to drop Material Design altogether. Though the new gradients have revitalized the design language somewhat, the essence of flat design is still there.

Apple, on the other hand, wants a return to 3D. Liquid Design mimics the transparent aesthetics of Windows Vista. Though a bunch of users have found the design polarizing, other brands have started copying the design for themselves, incorporating elements on Liquid Design on their interfaces.

Whatever Google is doing, it’s coming in due time. The company is hosting its annual Google I/O on May 12 to showcase new developments coming to the Android ecosystem, including its design.

Gaming

Stranger Than Heaven is a Yakuza prequel with Snoop Dogg

The story spans different eras and regions across half a century in Japan.

Published

May 7, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

In my review of Yakuza Kiwami 3, I groaned about how every new entry in the Yakuza and Like a Dragon franchise — original and remake — looked identical with each other. I ended that playthrough hoping desperately for a new era. Thankfully, those hopes did not fall on deaf ears. In its first trailer, the upcoming Stranger Than Heaven showed off an interesting reimagining of the Yakuza universe. Oh, and Snoop Dogg is in it.

First announced back in late 2024 as Project Century, Stranger Than Heaven has now confirmed itself as a prequel to the prequel to the Yakuza games. It didn’t start that way, though. When it was announced, there was hope that the then-untitled game featured a new story disconnected from Yakuza. It looks like the final game is making the best of both worlds.

Stranger Than Heaven chronicles the rise of the infamous Tojo Clan. Unless this is decidedly different from the Tojo Clan in the Yakuza series, this is the clearest sign that this is, in fact, a prequel.

Makoto Daito, a Japanese boy living in Chicago, escapes America to forge a new life in Japan. Along the way, he meets Orpheus, a smuggler played by Snoop Dogg, who drags Makoto into the criminal underworld. Eventually, Makoto decides to do things his own way by creating a new crime family called the Tojo Clan.

Unlike other games in the series, Stranger Than Heaven spans different eras and regions in Japan, starting with Fukuoka in 1915 and ending with Kamurocho in 1965. It will also have different fighting mechanics by mapping the left and right bumpers/triggers to left and right attacks.

Off the bat, Stranger Than Heaven looks like a new era for the series. It launches winter this year for all major platforms.