The Huawei Mate 40 Pro. One of the best-looking phones ever, but not enough to keep Huawei in the ... [+]
David PhelanIt’s less than two years since Huawei was the biggest-selling smartphone maker in the world. True, it only held this position for a month or two, before sinking to a strong second place, behind Samsung.
Huawei execs have told me in the past that being number one was easy and that there were more important things to think about. However, the latest figures from Trendforce show a precipitous fall from grace for the Chinese brand. In the last year, the brand has swapped second place for third as Apple’s iPhone sales have increased, but in several months the two companies were neck-and-neck.
The latest statistics suggest that the current position is not third, but seventh, a huge downgrade.
There are two reasons for this. The biggest one, and one that’s been going for well over a year now, is the effect of the sanctions put in place by the U.S. government, which have tightened so that not only is the company prohibited from dealing with companies like Google to allow Google Mobile Services on its phones, but third-party companies are forbidden from dealing with Huawei, too.
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This led to TSMC stopping production of its Kirin 9000 chips for Huawei in September, meaning that when the stockpile of advanced processors runs out, there won’t be any more.
The sanctions were originally introduced to stop Huawei becoming involved in the United States’ 5G infrastructure, but, as fellow contributor Zak Doffman eloquently points out, this has had a calamitous effect on the company’s smartphone business, too.
But it’s also down to something Huawei did, as well. Recently, Huawei sold off its sub-brand, Honor. Honor makes brilliant and affordable smartphones with similar-but-different features to the ones in Huawei’s devices.
The waterfall display on the Huawei Mate 40 Pro.
David PhelanThe sale reduced the size of Huawei, of course. And it means that the new Honor is a competitor, not an asset. The separated Honor is not limited by the sanctions and, according to website CXTech, is resuming its work with Qualcomm to include its 5G chipsets in its phones. These handsets are expected to launch in May or June.
But it’s the Trendforce figures which are most striking. Instead of the 170 million smartphones it’s estimated Huawei made in 2020, 2021 may only see 45 million units made. That’s a fall from third place, just a whisker behind Apple and some way below Samsung, to seventh place. In between are Xiaomi, in third place, Oppo, Vivo and Transsion.
So, is this the end for Huawei?
I don’t think so. It’s still a very big player in China and highly thought of for immaculately built phones with great innovations beyond. And its next big release, the P50 Pro is already attracting a lot of interest.
But it is a very big drop that will leave the company hoping that a new President could ease the situation in the U.S. or that its soon-to-be-released phone operating software, Harmony OS, can stimulate a turnaround. But its rivals are doing everything to ensure that their new high spots on the sales charts are where they stay.
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The Link LonkJanuary 07, 2021 at 11:00PM
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