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Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei, which once ranked first in global smartphone shipments, has fallen to sixth in the world due to US sanctions, US economic media CNBC reported on the 28th (local time).
According to reports, market research firm Counterpoint Research estimated that Huawei’s global smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of last year were 33 million units, down 41% from the same period last year, and the market share was only 8%.
As a result, Huawei fell to the world’s sixth largest company, being pushed by Samsung Electronics and Apple as well as Chinese rivals Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.
In another market research firm, Canalis, Huawei shipped 32 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year, down 43% in the same period last year. Canalis said, “It’s the first time in six years that Huawei has been pushed out of the top five.”
Huawei had shipped 55.8 million smartphones until the second quarter of last year, ranking first in the world.
Huawei’s crash is said to have resulted from US sanctions. “Huawei has retreated sharply in most markets due to US sanctions,” said Canalis analyst Amber Liu.
The U.S. blacklisted Huawei in 2019 for national security reasons and restricted the delivery of U.S. products and technologies.
CNBC reported that it suffered a big blow in the global market as Huawei was unable to use Google’s’Android’ operating system (OS) due to US sanctions.
In May of last year, the US even blocked a transaction between Huawei and Taiwanese foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) TSMC. With these sanctions, Huawei was forced to sell’Honour’, a mid- to low-end brand that accounts for 25% of smartphone sales in November of last year.
Recently, Reuters reported that Huawei is considering the sale of flagship smartphone brands such as’P’ series and’Mate’ following Honor. However, Huawei denied that it was “unfounded”.