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Huawei, Apple is winning a greater share of China's declining smartphone market
(Reuters) Huawei Technologies and Apple also expanded their share of China's mobile market in the second quarter of 2020 as the overall demand for handsets continued to decline.
In the second quarter, Huawei delivered 40.2 million smartphones to China, 8 percent more than a year ago, to raise its market share to a commanding 44 percent.
Apple experienced a large year-on-year growth of 35 per cent, shipping 7.7 million units, while its sales accounted for just 8.5 per cent of the overall market.
Total mobile shipments in China amounted to 97.6 million units, down 7 percent from the previous year.
The contraction shows that, given China's economic rebound after coronavirus-related lockdowns, customers are tightening their belts and putting back new phone purchases.
Next generation 5G smartphones accounted for about half of the phones delivered in the second quarter, with 39 million units sold, up 260 percent from the previous year.
Local retailers are pushing 5G expansion within their range to help the operator 's attempts to migrate current 4G customers to 5G, which in July had already reached 100 million subscribers, said Louis Liu, an analyst with Canalys.
Huawei is planning to be a 5G company in China. The 5G portfolio reached 60% of the cumulative shipments in Q2.'
Huawei is also caught in a spat with Washington. The U.S. in June. The Department of Commerce also imposed new limits on American vendors to the product. Analysts claim that directives, if enforced, could cripple the chip division of the group and its overseas telephone sales.
Android-based labels Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi saw shipments dropping by 13 percent, 19 percent and 19 percent respectively.
Source: Reuters; Reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
