14 DAY TRIAL // After overtaking Apple, Huawei’s long-term plan is to surpass Samsung and become the world’s number one smartphone marker, though it goes without saying that all the sanctions put in place by the United States government have made the whole thing much more difficult.
And yet, more difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and living proof is that Huawei has actually managed to briefly overtake Samsung in April to take over the leading position world.
More specifically, data shared by Counterpoint Research shows that in April 2020, Huawei actually secured a 19 percent global market share in the mobile industry, whereas Samsung fell to the second place with 17 percent.
This was just a temporary switch of places, so the South Korean company then returned to the leading spot, albeit this shows that Huawei isn’t very far from its dream of becoming the world’s leading company in the mobile business.
The Chinese growth engine
So how is this possible given all the struggles that Huawei has to deal with these days?
It all comes down to China. As the world’s largest mobile market, China is Huawei’s number one growth engine, and by the looks of things, Huawei has benefited from such a massive increase in its home market that it even managed to offset the drop caused by the US sanctions.
The rest of the markets, including those in Europe, the United States, and India, fell substantially during the quarter, and both Huawei and Samsung were affected. So basically, with China remaining one of the few markets where smartphone sales recorded a boost and Huawei securing the top spot, the company eventually took over the leading place worldwide as well.
For now, Samsung is back to the number one place in global phone sales, but with Huawei already breathing down its neck, there’s a chance another switch takes place rather sooner than later.