Huawei is expecting a 20% decline in smartphone sales for 2020

Since 2018, Washington has been trying to prevent Huawei’s business from growing over the concerns of espionage and unlawful access provided to the Chinese government by Huawei’s network equipment. Last year, Trump’s administration even included Huawei on a list of entities prohibited from working with American technology companies. That’s why Huawei’s latest phones do not have access to Google services.

Now, a post by The Information states that Huawei is expecting a drop of around 20% in smartphone sales for 2020. The projected decline comes as a result of Huawei phones still being banned from using Google apps and services. This makes them a tougher sale in western markets dominated by brands like Apple and Samsung.

Additionally, the expected decline in sales could be partly related to the recent public health situation that has, unfortunately, paralyzed China’s factories and suppliers, and is affecting almost all smartphone manufacturers around the world.

Last year, Huawei surpassed Apple and became the second-largest smartphone company by number of phones shipped. It sold over 240 million phones over the course of 2019, while for 2020, the number is only expected to reach 190 to 200 million.

The Huawei P40 models that will be announced on March 26 will come without Google services. It is estimated that the sales of those devices could be affected by the fact that European consumers would want Google apps on Android smartphones. Nevertheless, Huawei smartphones are still very popular in its homeland of China.

Recently, Google appealed to the US government for permission to work with Huawei. However, for the time being, Google apps still aren’t allowed on Huawei smartphones. Huawei has in response developed its own alternative, Huawei Mobile Services, along with Huawei’s AppGallery as an alternative to Google Play Store.