Industry sources are claiming that Huawei is planning to dethrone Samsung as the largest smartphone vendor in 2019, reports Reuters. Huawei has set its annual smartphone shipment goal for this year at 250 million units, while it will aim to hit 300 million in 2020.
Such goals may seem a bit out of place to some of you due to Huawei’s recent 5G equipment issues in some countries, and the fact that it is having a hard time dealing with the US in general, but no, Huawei’s goals are quite ambitious.
Not only is Huawei planning to sell 250 million smartphones in 2019, but it is also aiming to enhance self-sufficiency in the supply of smartphone chip solutions. As many of you probably already know, Huawei is utilizing its HiSilicon Kirin-branded chips in its flagship smartphones, and some of its mid-range ones, but most of its low-end and mid-range offerings ship with either chips from Qualcomm or MediaTek.
Moving forward, Huawei will be aiming to continue using Kirin chips, and maybe even use them even more in low and mid-range phones, according to industry sources, while the company has also required extra capacity support from its partners. Huawei has also, reportedly, asked its Taiwan supply chain partners to relocate to China, but that may prove to be a rather significant problem. It will be difficult to do something like that for FC-BGA and FC-CSP packaging equipment or chip probing lines due to Taiwan’s regulatory restrictions. This does indicate that Huawei is requiring its partners to “provide more timely support”, says the source.
Reuters reports that Huawei’s global annual revenues are already breaking the $100 billion level, considering they did in 2018. The company has extended its business to North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
Is There A Chance For Huawei To Dethrone Samsung in 2019?
Huawei had shipped over 200 million smartphones in 2018, which marks yet another great year for the company, as far as smartphone sales are concerned, at the very leaks. According to IDC’s report from the end of January, Huawei actually shipped 206 million smartphones in 2018, and is the third-placed smartphone OEM on a global scale.
Apple managed to ship 208.8 million units in 2019, and is second-placed, while Samsung is still in the lead, as the company sold 292.3 million devices in 2018. In translation, this means that Samsung holds 20.8-percent of the market, Apple is at 14.9-percent, while Huawei managed to grab 14.7-percent. These three companies are followed by Xiaomi and OPPO, and they hold 8.7-percent and 8.1-percent of the market.
Huawei has been growing constantly for years now, and its sales have been increasing. Huawei is really close to taking over that second place from Apple for a longer period of time, but Samsung is still selling almost 100 million phones more than Huawei on a yearly basis. Presuming that Samsung’s sales will not drop significantly, and Huawei actually managed to ship close to 250 million smartphones in 2019, Samsung will still remain the number one smartphone OEM at the end of the year.
Truth be said, if Huawei actually manages to have a brilliant year when it comes to smartphone sales, and steals those sales from Samsung in the process, a scenario where Huawei ends up becoming the number one smartphone manufacturer is possible, but that is not as likely. The difference between the two companies in terms of sales is still quite significant, not to mention that Huawei is having problems selling its phones in the US at the moment. All in all, Samsung will probably retain its position at the end of the year, but who knows what will happen in 2020, as Huawei’s growth is hard to deny.