In news that shocked many, it has been revealed that for a short time this year Huawei has overtaken Samsung to become the largest smartphone maker in the world as reported by Gizmochina. Huawei managed to achieve this even in spite of the US ban on its products. This news has shown the power that Huawei is possessing over the smartphone market.
The US ban helps domestic Huawei demand
Figures released show that for the month of April Huawei had the largest market share of any supplier. Samsung took 17% of the market whilst Huawei managed to claim 19%.
To many, it would seem impossible that Huawei could improve its market share whilst under a US ban. However, somehow the company has done it.
Many believe the upsurge in demand for Huawei products could be counterintuitively due to the US trade ban.
Some have argued that the US trade ban has made the company more appealing to customers in China. This has lead to a Huawei executive pointing out that the trade ban could affect US jobs more than Huawei.
This is quite a startling statistic that puts the efficacy of the US trade ban under a lot of scrutiny.
The fact that the patriotism of Chinese customers is enough to pull off such a feat is a great worry to other companies. However, there are more factors at play than just this.
Lockdown harms Samsung and others
The fact that Huawei has overtaken Samsung as the largest smartphone distributor is not just down to an increase in sales from the former. In fact, Samsung, as well as other smartphone suppliers, have been hit particularly hard during the month of April.
The Covid-19 pandemic that has swept the globe came under control in China in April just as it took off elsewhere.
This meant outside China demand for smartphones dropped to almost zero, massively harming Samsung’s market share. Android Central has pointed out that the timing of this month is quite fortuitous for Huawei and is unlikely to replicate itself any time soon.
As more countries begin to open themselves up again we can expect Samsung’s market shart to recover. Even though Huawei is doing well in China its market share across the globe has declined in recent months.
This means that as the rest of the globe recovers we can expect Samsung to reclaim its spot as the number one smartphone distributor in the world.