Yicai Global) Oct. 16 - The total market share of China's Huawei Technologies' Honor and Huawei mobile phone brands has overtaken that of South Korea's Samsung Group's to lead the pack in Russia's smartphone market.

Shenzhen-based Huawei's handsets ranked second in Greece in August at 19 percent in an annual fourfold rise on last year, Zhao Ming, president of the firm's Honor (stylized as 'honor') division said at a recent new product release conference in Russia, citing the latest data from German leading analytics firm GfK Market Research.

The honor 10 has a market share of 70 percent in the RUB25,000 to 30,000 [USD382 to 158] range in Russia, where the brand's models also claim five of the top 10 slots, the data also show. The total market share of honor + Huawei has topped Samsung's in the country since June, Russia's state Sputnik news network reported yesterday.

Overseas honor sales rose one and a half times in the first half, Zhao said, up threefold in the UK and six-fold in Spain, while the handset brand ranked in the top five in the Czech Republic and Italy. The brand has surpassed Apple for four straight months to become the second-largest smartphone in Russia.

In India, honor was the 'fastest growing smartphone brand' in the first half of the year and its growth rate was fourfold there in August.

Editor: Ben Armour