The Chinese tech giant overtakes Samsung worldwide

Jul 30, 2020 10:43 GMT  ·  By

A few years ago, Huawei’s leadership team announced an ambitious goal that many used to mock the company: the Chinese tech giant wanted to overtake both Apple and Samsung to become the world’s number one phone maker.

And here we are today, with Huawei officially surpassing Samsung to accomplish its long-term objective after it previously secured the leading spot in 2019.

At first glance, Huawei becoming the number one phone maker in the world in the second quarter of 2020 is something that’s incredibly difficult, especially given the entire planet struggled with the global health crisis and the Chinese company itself had to deal with the sanctions imposed by the United States.

But data provided by Canalys shows that achieving this goal was mostly possible because of a huge drop recorded by Samsung during the quarter.

More specifically, Huawei’s phone shipments worldwide declined by 5 percent year on year, but on the other hand, Samsung’s sales in the mobile industry nearly collapsed, with a drop of no less than 30 percent versus the same quarter of 2019.

Strong sales in China

According to the research firm, no less than 72 percent of the phones that it sold during the quarter went to Chinese buyers, while the remaining 28 percent were purchased by customers in other parts of the world.

Canalys, however, warns that relying so much on China isn’t something that Huawei should do in the long term.

“Taking first place is very important for Huawei,” said Canalys analyst Mo Jia.

“It is desperate to showcase its brand strength to domestic consumers, component suppliers and developers. It needs to convince them to invest, and will broadcast the message of its success far and wide in the coming months. But it will be hard for Huawei to maintain its lead in the long term. Its major channel partners in key regions, such as Europe, are increasingly wary of ranging Huawei devices, taking on fewer models, and bringing in new brands to reduce risk. Strength in China alone will not be enough to sustain Huawei at the top once the global economy starts to recover.”

Huawei shipped a total of 55.8 million phones during the quarter, while second-placed Samsung sold 53.7 million units.