Huawei to unseat Samsung to become Apple's biggest rival: Analyst

China’s Huawei Technologies, world’s third-largest smartphone vendor is likely to take over Samsung’s position to come neck and neck with Apple, according to analyst.

In an interview with CNBC, Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White said, “I do expect the Chinese to knock off Samsung and that’s probably going to be Huawei. I see it as a Huawei-Apple fight in the future, Samsung and probably some smaller competitors underneath them.”

In the fourth quarter (2016) Huawei achieved almost 11 per cent market share, after Apple and Samsung with an 18.3 per cent and 18.1 per cent of market share respectively, according to IDC.

The Chinese firm took the third spot, dethroning its home market rival Xiaomi, also dubbed as the “China’s Apple.”

“We are going to take them (Apple) step-by-step, innovation-by-innovation,” Yu told Reuters, adding that he expected to improve Huawei's position along with technology shifts.

According to reports, Huawei is already aiming on the digital voice assistant services provided by its competitors, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and now newly launched Samsung’s Bixby, by building its own voice assistance for smartphones.

“There will be more opportunities. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality," he said. "It is like driving a car. At every curve or turn, there is an opportunity to overtake the competition,” Yu said.

With Apple struggling to come with a varied design and Samsung reeling from market loss it had due to withdrawal of Note 7, Yu believes Huawei to be at a tipping point. 

“Step-by-step we are winning the trust and loyalty of the customers. It is about trust and loyalty.” Yu added.