The global COVID-19 pandemic has made a notable dent in businesses. Some corporation has not been spared, including smartphone makers.
However, for the first time, Huawei shipped more phones than Samsung in Q1 2020. This development is interesting because, for a very long time, Samsung has been on top of things.
The numbers were announced by Counterpoint Research. The stats are unofficial (Samsung and Huawei, among other makers, have not released their official numbers), but they keep track of the industry bearing in mind its reporter is a reputable organization.
According to Counterpoint, Huawei’s smartphone market share was at 19% in April 2020. Samsung was close behind at 17%.
Huawei’s market share in China is at 40% in Q1 2020. It is also the only phone company that has seen positive year over year growth during the pandemic.
It shipped 59.1 million phones in the quarter. Samsung shipped 100K less. Apple shipped 40 million units.
Huawei sales grew by 6% year over year. Apple devices dropped by 1%. The rest of the market saw drops up to two-digit values. For instance, vivo, OPPO dropped by 27% and 30% respectively, whereas Xiaomi and others dropped by 35% and 40%, respectively.
Huawei’s home market is strong, unlike its reach in other parts of the world. It has been a year since the company was put on the Entity List by the US government. To this end, Huawei has been selling phones with Google services.
It is a big deal for the Western market, but the manufacturer has been making strides with solutions such as Huawei Mobile Services that it promises will be a solid replacement for Google apps and services over time.
