Huawei - leading smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2020
It is clear that US sanctions will not stop Huawei market growth at least in China. In fact, The Chinese telecom giant is working on expanding its local market. Huawei is expected to lead the smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2020.
In a press release published on July 24, 2020, Counterpoint Research states that Chinese operators are pushing for 5G smartphones through lowering prices as well as 5G plans. Huawei registered 46% of smartphone sales volume share in the second quarter of 2020, according to Monthly Smartphone Market Pulse-July 2020.
Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and other operators have registered a market decline according to the same report. Flora Tang, a Research analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that Huawei has achieved 14% growth despite the market slowdown compared to the first quarter of 2020. On the other hand, Apple has registered 32% in Smartphone sales volume growth YoY. The impressive increase of Apple smartphones sales volume goes back to the popularity of the iPhone 11 series as well as the reduced prices of Apple products.
Ethan Qi, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint said, “In the second quarter of 2020, 33% of the smartphones sold were 5G enabled compared to only 16% in the first quarter of the year, according to Counterpoint Research.”
CNMO report states that Huawei reached 63% of the 5G smartphone shipments in China and has a 5G smartphone market share of over 40% globally. Despite facing issues in many countries- including the United Kingdom and Canada-, Huawei said that it managed to ship 15 million units of 5G mobile phone in the first quarter of 2020, according to the same report.
Banning the Chinese telecom giant from the deployment of the 5G network will not have consequences on mobile phone usage. The US sanctions only consider core parts of the 5G network. On July 14, 2020, the UK National Cybersecurity center said, “The NCSC’s work on this topic relates purely to Huawei equipment in the UK’s telecoms network. It doesn’t directly affect the Huawei technology you use at home, such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets”. Applications will continue to work on old Huawei smartphones. However, new devices will not be able to use applications such as Play Store, Maps, YouTube, or Google Assistant, according to NCSC.
Huawei has been trying to reduce its reliance on a third party. Instead of Google App and Services, the Chinese telecom giant is offering its own mobile services with the so-called AppGallery.
Huawei has recently announced a partnership with the leading luggage brand, Samsonite. According to Forbes, the partnership allows a Huawei smartphone owner to lock a Samsonite bag by tapping the Smart Lock on compatible Samsonite cases.