Despite facing numerous sanctions by the US government, it seemed as if Huawei was able to weather the storm and continued to sell its mobile handsets in large numbers. It also appears that the lack of Google services and chipset manufacturers willing to do business with it is finally starting to hurt its bottom line.
The latest report from Canalys reveals that the company, which was the world’s biggest-selling smartphone manufacturer at some point last year, has now fallen out of the top 5 for the first time in 6 years. This analysis was taken before the company sold Honor, so you can’t even blame that for the serious decline in sales.
The big winner is Apple, whose new iPhone 12s series seems to have proven quite popular with users and saw the manufacturer achieve the biggest sales of the last quarter of 2020. Apple reclaimed the second spot (behind Samsung) that it had had previously lost to Huawei, while Xiaomi continues to hold steady in third place for the last two quarters, though it has also been hit by similar US sanctions of late and unless new US president Joe Biden overturns that, it could see its sales also go down.
Huawei will likely still continue to sell a lot of phones as its incredible products remain popular with many users in Asia even without Google, but it does show that things are going to be increasingly tough for it if the sanctions don’t change. Even with a new set of phones on the way, Huawei is unlikely to claw its way back to the top on the global stage anytime soon.
As for Apple, it will be interesting to see how long its rise lasts. Samsung has new devices out which will no doubt see it climb back to the top spot for Q1 of 2021. With Huawei and Xiaomi handicapped, its dominance is unlikely to be lost anytime soon.
Last Updated: February 1, 2021
