Huawei, a Chinese telecom equipment maker that has been hit by the US government’s sanctions, said it would take longer than expected to achieve its goal of becoming the best in the global smartphone market.
Xiao Yang said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony in Shanghai on Tuesday, as reported by APTN and Reuters,
“In the first quarter of this year, we were the second-largest company in terms of sales. If we had not met something unexpected, it might have been number one in the fourth quarter. But now we have to wait a bit longer.” – Xiao Yang, Chief Strategy Officer of Huawei.
Xiao did not elaborate on the reason for temporarily holding the world’s first goal. US President Donald Trump has limited Huawei and its affiliates’ dealings with US companies. As well as urging allies to stop trading with the Chinese smartphone maker as part of the US-China trade war.
But Huawei decided to look beyond
Huawei has surpassed Apple in the first quarter and ranks second in the global smartphone market. Many times, the companyi has expressed its desire to push Samsung from the top of the list.
According to market researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung Electronics ranked first. It has a share of more than 20% in the smartphone market by the first quarter of this year. And Huawei ranked second with 18%.
In January, Huawei professed that it will achieve the top position in the world without US market this year. However, market experts expect US shipments of the Chinese smartphones to decline by up to 24 percent this year.
But Xiao also spoke of the importance of innovation and challenge in the speech.
“It’s a good time to make a great deal of history as a historical point in our time,” he said. “People look at 5G, but we look beyond. Only the brave can win and they can come to a new stage in history.”
