In early 2016, Huawei announced its plan to become the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world ahead of Samsung and Apple within 5 years. It overtook the latter for the first time in 2018 and later revealed its new aim to overtake Samsung by 2020.
This goal was thrown into turmoil a year ago when the United States announced a trade ban that directly affected Huawei’s ability to work with Google and other companies. But new data reveals Huawei has finally achieved its long-term goal.
Huawei accounted for over 21% of smartphone sales
Despite facing falling sales across Europe and a global pandemic that has forced countless countries to implement some form of lockdown, Counterpoint Research claims Huawei finished April in first place with an impressive 21.4% share of the global smartphone market.
The Chinese company was able to increase its share of the pie thanks to a strong presence in China. Whereas demand for new smartphones collapsed in most international markets, the earlier wave of COVID-19 in China meant the market was already in recovery by April.
Samsung, on the other hand, suffered massively because of the strict lockdowns in both India and Europe. The South Korean company accounted for 19.1% of the smartphone market following a 29% drop in demand when compared to March.
Counterpoint Research highlighted the noticeably weaker demand for the new Galaxy S20 5G series when compared to previous flagship lineups. Sales numbers were not provided, but previous reports have suggested sales are down over 30%.
Overall, 69.37 million smartphones were shipped across the globe in April. That represents a massive year-on-year decrease of 41%.
Huawei could retain the title throughout Q2 2020
There is no word yet on how Huawei performed in May but the company could potentially end the second quarter of 2020 as the largest smartphone manufacturer. That would mark the first time Huawei has ever achieved the milestone.
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Sales in China have continued to recover throughout the quarter but demand in Europe, North America, and India still remains extremely low. These three regions are extremely important for Samsung, which means the company could fall even further behind.
Samsung is likely to return to the top spot once international markets normalize later this year, but Huawei can now boast that it achieved its long-term goal, even if it ends up being temporary.
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