China’s Huawei, which was top of global smartphone market sales, plunged to sixth place after the direct hit of U.S. sanctions.
Counterpoint Research estimated that Huawei’s global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of last year were 33 million units. It is down 41% from a year earlier, and its market share was only 8%.
Huawei fell far behind Apple and Samsung. As well as its Chinese rivals Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, making it the sixth-largest company.
Another market research company, Canalys, also announced that Huawei’s smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of last year were 32 million units. It is down nearly 43% from a year earlier. It is the first time in six years that Huawei has been pushed out of the top five in global smartphone sales.
Huawei plunged, in contrast to Apple’s record-high performance in the smartphone market
According to research firm IDC estimates, Apple regained the top spot from Samsung Electronics by selling 9.1 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year. Apple’s sales volume was a record that no company had achieved.
Apple increased its sales by 22% thanks to the popularity of its first 5G model, the iPhone 12. And its market share increased to 23.4%.
Apple also took Huawei’s share in China’s high-priced smartphone market, but there was still demand for Huawei in China, but supply was not enough, said Nicole Feng, a Canadian analyst.
U.S. sanctions have dealt a huge blow to Huawei’s smartphone business. U.S. government blacklisted Huawei in 2019. They blocked access to key parts and software by U.S. companies.
Huawei’s inability to use Google’s Android operating system is not a big deal in China. There Google Search and YouTube are unavailable. But it directly affected consumer choice in overseas markets.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Huawei fell hard in the Chinese market, which has been a good one so far. According to CINNO Research in Shanghai, Huawei’s sales in the fourth quarter fell more than 40% to 24.2 million units.
Reuters recently reported that Huawei is considering selling flagship brands “P” and “Mate”. Following the sale of mid- and low-priced smartphone brands “Honor” in November last year under strong U.S. sanctions.
This is interpreted as Huawei’s move to eventually withdraw from the expensive smartphone business.
However, Huawei denied the plan.
Huawei has recently led the cloud and artificial intelligence sectors by the CEO of the consumer division of We Chengdong, who has grown the smartphone business, which signals that Huawei is turning to other businesses, CNBC said.
Meanwhile, China’s Global Times said on the 29th that Huawei should prepare for pressure from the
