Sanctions by the US government have severely discouraged Huawei’s mobile sales in China, according to a recent Canalys report. In turn, Huawei’s downturn has opened up space for rivals, including Apple. The apple company had unprecedented sales in China in the last quarter of 2020 and has now managed to sell most iPhones since 2015.
Overall, Chinese smartphone sales fell 11 percent in 2020, and although there was a high demand for Huawei’s assets, the company faced serious manufacturing difficulties due to sanctions. In May 2020, Huawei’s rotating president, Guo Ping, noted that while the company can design certain semiconductor components itself, there are now simply too many tasks in their necks.
Among Chinese manufacturers Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi quickly penetrated this niche, and Apple also mowed heavily in Huawei’s downturn. The Huawei Mate series was the main competitor to the iPhones in the high-end category, but Huawei was only able to deliver 4 million Mate mobiles in the fourth quarter, while Apple advertised the new iPhone 12 with tremendous force. The aggressive marketing campaign paid off and found 15.3 million iPhones in China in the last quarter.
Huawei still sold the most mobile phones during this period, but its market share increased from 41% a year ago to 22%. decreased while Apple expanded from 15 percent to 18 percent. But neither can Oppo, which accounted for 23 percent of sales in the last quarter.
