Huawei lost the world title in selling mobile phones to Samsung. The Chinese group sold 51.7 million mobile phones in the third quarter and recorded a drop of 23%.
Chinese group Huawei lost the title of the world leader in mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2020, concludes market analysis firm Canalys, reflecting the impact of U.S. sanctions.
Huawei sold 51.7 million mobile phones in the third quarter, down 23% from the same period last year.
South Korean competitor Samsung sold 80.2 million devices, a 2% year-on-year rise, regaining its position as the world’s largest manufacturer, according to Canalys’ study this Friday.
Huawei is in the crosshairs of the Donald Trump government, which accuses the company of being at the service of China’s intelligence services.
In the space of just over a year, Washington has revised its export control rules for Huawei three times, affecting Chinese company suppliers worldwide.
Since September, for example, the company has not been able to equip its devices with the new Kirin chips, which the group does not have the capacity to manufacture internally.
The company also lost access to updates for Android, Google’s operating system that is used by most mobile phone brands.
The sanctions, however, benefited the other major Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi.
“Xiaomi took the risk of setting high production targets and it was worth it,” said Mo Jia, an analyst at Canalys.
The Chinese manufacturer sold 47.1 million smartphones, an increase of 45%, compared to the third quarter of 2020, despite global demand has fallen 1%.
“There is a parallel between Xiaomi, which produced 14.5 million more devices, and Huawei, which produced 15.1 million fewer,” noted Mo.
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has seen strong growth in recent years, offering state-of-the-art devices at an affordable price. Almost unknown abroad five years ago, the brand was at the time regularly ridiculed for its products, heavily inspired by the Apple iPhone.
