Huawei is projecting that its annual smartphone shipments will fall around 20% this year. Which translates to about 50 million fewer units set for sale this year.
In 2019, the company shipped over 240 million units globally. This year, with the drop the company might sell between 190 to 200 units.
, The projected decline is pegged on the ongoing U.S. sanctions on its business. Which block the tech giant from using Google’s mobile services. This has really affected sales in the European markets.
Secondly, the rapidly spreading coronavirus, which has hurt manufacturing and retail sectors in China.
Huawei shared its internal projection for 2020 in January among a limited number of managers in its consumer electronics division. The projection hasn’t previously been reported.
Huawei has been on scrutiny by the US government since last year. And a number of US markets have been barred from using the telco’s products.
The US government has since offered a temporary reprieve to companies, allowing them to work with Huawei until April 2020. On allegations which Huawei has long denied any wrongdoing and continues to maintain its innocence.
This year, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson giving the company approval to build non-core parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure, setting an important precedent as the wireless tech becomes increasingly mainstream in the UK.
The company’s chairman predicted that 2020 will be “difficult” for Huawei, and the early going seems to bear that out — the US is continuing to pressure allies to block Huawei from their next-generation 5G wireless networks.
The future of Huawei
The company is slowly picking fro the US sanctions. Late last year, the company announced it is working on Harmoney OS a replacement for Google products.
“The Harmony OS is likely the future. , According to the Huawei’s consumer business group CEO, Richard Yu, already 55,000 developers have signed up to HMS”
” The US government has created a challenging environment for “Huawei to survive and thrive.” The company will need to build up its own mobile services alternatives to Google’s products to ensure it’s able to continue selling phones in overseas markets, said, Mr Xu Zhijun, Huawei Deputy Chairman.
“Survival will be our first priority,” he added.
While its phones are virtually invisible in the US, Huawei is the world’s second-largest phone maker after Samsung. In 2019 the company came slightly behind Samsung taking the second position in global smartphone sales with Apple replacing its third position in prior sales.