Global 5G smartphone shipments soared +2300%. Huawei is No.1
According to new research from Strategy Analytics, EDT (Techs) service, global 5G smartphone shipments soared +2300% to an all-time high in the second quarter of 2020. 5G smartphone shipments
Huawei grabbed the no.1 spot, leaving Western rivals trailing a long way behind.
According to analyst Canalys, Huawei’s milestone wouldn’t have happened right now were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic and the speed of China’s economic recovery, which has been faster than the rest of the world’s.
At the same time, Huawei has steadily closed the gap between its shipments and Samsung’s over the past decade. And it’s managed to eclipse its South Korean rival in the face of US sanctions preventing it from shipping new Honor and Mate phones with key Google apps, such as Gmail and YouTube.
Huawei shipped 55 million smartphones in Q2 2020, down 5% year on year, while Samsung shipped 53.7 million units, down 30% compared with Q2 2019.
Huawei’s non-China shipments have also taken a battering, declining 27% in Q2, but its shipments within China grew 8%. China represents over 70% of Huawei’s smartphone shipments, whereas Samsung’s only has a 1% market share in China, and is far more exposed to markets that are still being damaged by the pandemic, including Brazil, India, the US and Europe.
“This is a remarkable result that few people would have predicted a year ago. If it wasn’t for COVID-19, it wouldn’t have happened,” said Canalys senior analyst, Ben Stanton.
“Huawei has taken full advantage of the Chinese economic recovery to reignite its smartphone business.”
Vivo landed at No. 3, with 2 million 5G phone shipments last year. It’s followed by Xiaomi at 1.2 million shipments, and LG at around 900,000 shipments.
“Upcoming 5G models from Apple iPhone and other big brands mean 5G will be the hottest part of the worldwide smartphone market this year,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in this year previous release.