Huawei has overtaken Apple to become the world’s second best selling smartphone manufacturer in 2019.
Research reveals that, in 2019, Huawei has supplied 251 million units. Whilst the Korean rival Samsung has shipped 323 units for the same period. In the same period, Apple only shipped around 200 million units which nows sits in the third position.
Samsung retained its comfortable lead in the first place while Xiaomi and Oppo rounded out the list of the top five manufacturers.
Currently, according to research carried out by Strategy Analytics The two tech giants control the highest market share. Huawei controls a market share of about 17. 7 per cent while Samsung leads at 21.3 per cent. Apple held 11 per cent taking third place.
The numbers reveal a high market growth for Huawei up from the 2018 14 per cent market share despite the US ban that has affected it’s market supplies in the region.
Huawei has been closely working on overtaking Apple with the massive smartphone launches. In 2019 especially with the 5G launch and the high-end camera pixels dug out Apple in the race.
Back in 2017 Huawei initially overtook Apple to sell more smartphones in the months of June and July, and the following year IDC also reported that it had sold more phones than Apple in the second quarter of the year.
But in 2019, the company overtook Apple to sell more phones throughout the entire year.
Although it lost out on the number two spot for 2019 as a whole. Apple has had a very strong fourth quarter of 2019. Market analyst firms note that it managed to outsell Samsung in the last quarter, with sales being driven by the iPhone 11’s lower pricing in particular. Throughout the whole quarter, Apple’s phone sales were up by between 7 and 11 per cent in Q4 2019 compared to the same quarter in 2018.
The jump is especially surprising given Huawei’s continued presence on the USA’s entity list. It prevents the company from installing Google’s apps and services on its new devices, limiting their appeal outside of China.
As a result, Huawei’s main strength was in its home country China. Although the Middle East and some of the African markets also had quite a good number of shipments.
Counterpoint Research says China accounted for 60 per cent of its sales. Thus pushing its shipments worldwide to increase by 17 per cent between 2018 and 2019.
The hindrance from the US Government has significantly affected Huawei’s performance in western markets. If Huawei gets access to Google mobile services then Samsung might as well get dethroned.
The ban has been the company’s biggest bottleneck in the race to become the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world.
