Huawei has not been able to maintain its position in its home market. The American embargo prohibits it from designing smartphones equipped with a 5G chip … which considerably slows down its sales.
The P50 Pro in Cocoa Gold // Source: Huawei
We wondered how Huawei was going to be able to resist the American embargo. According to the latest studies published by the Nikkei Asia, which uses data from the firm IDC, Huawei is no longer part of the 5 largest smartphone manufacturers in China.
The reason for this drop is, of course, the export restrictions for American companies that continue to apply under the Biden administration. These restrictions prohibit US companies and other allied countries from supplying technology and products to Huawei.
Huawei has therefore been unable to equip new smartphones with 5G modems and also has enormous difficulties in procuring the necessary components for its devices. This explains why the latest Huawei P50 Pro and Huawei P50 Pocket do not have 5G compatibility.
Vivo, Oppo, Apple and Xiaomi on the rise
In these studies, Chinese smartphone makers dominate in China, including the Vivo brand, which leads the ranking with 71 million devices sold in 2021 according to Counterpoint. Oppo follows in second place with 67.1 million units sold. Vivo and Oppo belong to the same conglomerate of companies, their sales increase by 22 and 21% respectively in 2021.
As you can see, Apple is up 47% for 16% market share. It is the only foreign brand in this huge consumer market. Huawei registers a 68% decline, while Realme takes 379% growth. According to Counterpoint, the Chinese market lost 2% but this is not in IDC’s opinion.
In fact, the firm IDC estimated that 329.3 million smartphones were sold in 2021. This market would therefore have recorded a growth of 1% despite the shortage of components that affects the whole world.
IDC nevertheless has the same top 5 as Counterpoint, Vivo is first with a sales increase of 23.3%. Oppo is second with +18.3%, while Xiaomi observes an increase of 31%. This allows Xiaomi to see its market share increase from 12 to 15.5%. As for Apple, the increase is 39.5%.
Interestingly, the Honor brand is making progress in China. A former subsidiary of Huawei, Huawei sold the Honor brand at the end of 2020 to a consortium made up of 40 Chinese companies. They recently started releasing 5G smartphones equipped with Google services, such as the Honor 50.
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