Huawei as the world's largest manufacturer: Google is not a problem
Huawei was the only manufacturer in China to record growth in the first quarter. The result: Huawei dominates the Chinese market.
Huawei is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer. Or was for a short while. That's the hint GizmoChina used in its article. The industry magazine is referring to a study by Counterpoint Research, which analysed sales figures for the first quarter of 2020. GizmoChina does not provide an explicit data source for the headline, but refers to an email from Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint.
The reason is simple and can be summed up in one word: China.
The Chinese market in the first quarter of 2020
The South China Morning Post gives more details on the state of the market in China, where Huawei has reportedly landed the title. In the first quarter of 2020, the market is said to have fallen by 22%, the biggest quarterly drop since records began.
Only Huawei managed to record growth. The Shenzhen-based group recorded an increase of 6%. Analyst Flora Tang of Counterpoint Research found the reason for February's slump. In the report, she notes that it was mainly the Covid 19 outbreak that turned February into a black month. All the shops were closed. Online retailers such as AliBaba or JD.com continued to do good business, but 'passing' customers were not numerous in China for obvious reasons. According to Flora, online sales of smartphones increased by more than 50%. It's probably also this report that confirms Huawei as the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
At the end of the quarter, this led to the following brand growth rankings:
- Huawei ↑6%
- Apple ↓1 %
- Vivo ↓27%
- Oppo ↓30%
- Xiaomi ↓35%
- Other manufacturers ↓40 %
In this list, subsidiary brands are integrated into the parent company's figures. For example, Honor is integrated into Huawei, Iqoo into Vivo and Redmi into Xiaomi. Only Realme is not included in Oppo.
Compared to the first quarter of 2019, only Apple and Huawei recorded higher sales. This is despite Apple losing one per cent of its growth. Growth is not the same as sales figures. Apple, by the way, is winning when it comes to the best-selling smartphone model. The iPhone 11 is the title holder. According to analyst Ethan Qi, it has dominated this category for seven months. Huawei has managed to dominate the market by, among other things, serving all segments of the market, from budget phones to flagship products.
The golden rule for China
Experts who monitor the smartphone market know a golden rule: whoever has China has the global market. There are indeed plenty of examples that disprove this as true at an economic level, but the phrase can still hold water. Take Oppo, for example. The brand is new to the Swiss market and is enjoying great success with the Find X2 Pro. The most common response to a mention of the brand is "Who is Oppo? In China, Oppo is one of the biggest manufacturers on the market. It has only now begun its conquest of the European market, which no doubt also has something to do with the fact that the big name Huawei is in a bit of a rut.
Huawei, on the other hand, has suffered in Europe because the group is banned from supplying phones with Google services. As a result, the phones have lost much of their appeal to European individuals despite their impressive hardware. With no Play Store and no reasonable alternative, the devices are only useful to enthusiasts or idealists. Or for anyone willing to take risks and want to try installing Google services after the fact.
In China, there are no Google services, but, in return, great sympathy for Huawei. How dare the United States penalise the Chinese company? This sympathy leads the Chinese to buy Huawei phones out of protest and patriotism.
By the way, the US is not as big a global market as they would have us believe. The world's second largest market is India.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.