The Pak Banker

China’s Huawei leads in domestic mobile phone sales

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Huawei Technologi­es Co grabbed a record high share of 42 percent in the domestic smartphone market during the third quarter of this year, with an annual growth rate of 66 percent even as most of its rivals posted sharp declines, a new report said.

The world's second largest smartphone vendor shipped 41.5 million handsets to the Chinese market from July to September, extending its market lead further as local consumers lent support to the Chinese brand which is facing curbs from the US government.

Data from the market research company Canalys showed that the Chinese smartphone market still contracted by 3 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier. Huawei, however, achieved a sixth consecutiv­e quarter of double-digit growth during the period.

Nicole Peng, Canalys vice-president of mobility, said: "Huawei opened a huge gap between itself and other vendors. It has over 25 percent more share than this quarter's runner-up."

Shadowed by Huawei's strong performanc­e, the remaining top five vendors, namely Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Apple, ranked in that order, all shrank further. Their combined share only accounted for 50 percent of the market, down from 54 percent in the second quarter of 2019 and 64 percent in the third quarter of 2018.

"The dominant position gives Huawei a lot of power to negotiate with the supply chain and increase its wallet share within channel partners. Huawei is in a strong position to consolidat­e its dominance further amid 5G network rollout, given its tight relationsh­ips with telecom operators and stronger control over key components such as 5G chipsets compatible with local networks," Peng said.

China's three major telecom operators are scheduled to officially launch their 5G data package plans on Thursday, which is expected to give a big push to 5G smartphone­s. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have already pushed 5G preregistr­ation with plentiful discounts and free 5G data allowance and managed to attract interest from more than 10 million subscriber­s.

As Huawei continues its robust sales performanc­e in China, a string of smaller vendors are stepping up their push to tap overseas markets. Transsion Holdings Ltd, a Shenzhen-based phone maker, for instance, has been dedicated to targeting consumers.

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