The smartphone industry has been dominated by Apple and Samsung. Collectively, both companies have sold more mobile devices that any other brands, combined.
But the Chinese brand Huawei has been catching up slowly and steadily.
And up to the moment in July 2017, it finally surpassed Apple's sales to become the world's second smartphone manufacturer, according to Counterpoint Research.
What's more, the company achieved that massive amount of sales without really breaking into the U.S. market.
With Apple set to unveil the successor of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Huawei is also set to reveal some of its new phones by the end of 2017. So the competition is fierce.
Huawei itself doesn't sit at the top 10 popular smartphone brand, but It has a diverse portfolio.
But this is a problem for Huawei because it's making it more difficult in building a brand loyalty because of the many devices it has. People have too many Huawei phones to choose from. A contrast to Apple that generally releases only two or three types of phones per year.
For that particular reason, Apple's exclusive status is still making iPhones sitting at the top of the most popular smartphone brand, despite trailing behind Samsung and Huawei in sales.
According to Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 7 held the top spot in July with 4 percent of sales, followed by the 7 Plus with another 2.9 percent.
While Huawei's conquest over the past couple of months has been impressive, it's not yet certain how the brand can maintain that momentum as both Apple and Samsung release their upcoming flagships.