HONOR, a former unit of Huawei Technologies, posted the fastest growth in China’s smartphone market in the first quarter of the year, even as overall handset sales fell 14% year on year.

Android handset brands Vivo and Oppo, both under the privately owned BBK Electronics, claimed the largest share of first quarter sales, with 19.7% and 18% of the market, respectively, research firm Counterpoint Research said.

Apple, which was China’s top-selling vendor in the previous quarter for the first time in six years thanks to the release of the iPhone 13, was the third-largest seller in the first quarter of this year, claiming 17.9% of the market.

Honor made the biggest gains in the first quarter, taking the fourth biggest slice of sales with 16.9%, with sales up 15.5% on the previous quarter.

Huawei held 6.2% of the market in the first quarter.

Honor, the smartphone brand Huawei spun off in 2020, has been regaining share in domestic mobile phone market. It is also aiming to stage a comeback in the global smartphone market. With more than 11,000 employees, six R&D centers and more than 100 innovation laboratories, Honor is fully prepared for global expansion, Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said at the ongoing Mobile World Conference in Barcelona last month. Honor was the world’s ninth biggest smartphone maker by shipments in 2021, IDC data showed.

Honor is seeking to raise expansion capital ahead of a potential initial public offering, which could come as early as this year, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing sources. The company refuted it as a rumor Wednesday, without elaborating. (SD-Agencies)