Popular analytics agencies have finally released their smartphone sales statistics for 2019, including Q4 2019. While the results for the whole of 2019 may seem quite normal for many, the situation with the fourth quarter was completely unexpected. As you may have guessed, we are talking about a company Huawei, which was disconnected from Google services in May this year. This led to a significant drop in sales in the fourth quarter of 2019. At the same time, there is a significant growth in sales of the company's smartphones Apple. It is surprising, because many not so long ago said that the end of the Cupertinians would come soon, but, apparently, it is too early to bury the company Apple.
How much did the sanctions affect sales Huawei?
First, let's look at the statistics for the entire 2019. Compared to 2018 Huawei increased by 2%, while Samsung managed to increase its market share by 1%. Apple, one of the top three, lost one percent of the market, taking 13% compared to 14 percent a year earlier. Huawei meanwhile holds 16% of the market, while Samsung has 20%.
Smartphone shipments in 2019
From the graph below, you can see that in the first, second and third quarters of last year, Samsung and Huawei significantly increased their market share, but then there is a sharp decline, while in the case of Huawei the decline is more than significant and amounted to 7%. It is not entirely clear what caused the drop in sales of Samsung devices. The likely reason for this is a serious increase in consumer interest in devices Apple, which managed to deliver 78.4 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2019, Samsung delivered 70.8 million phones, and Huawei managed to deliver only 56 million devices, taking 15.2% of the market. Samsung occupied 19.2% of the market, and Apple 21.3% of the market. Amazing results.
Smartphone shipments in 2019 (chart)
Overall, in 2019, global smartphone shipments fell 2% to 1.37 billion units compared to 2018. And this despite the fact that in the third and fourth quarters there was an increase in consumer interest in phones.
What should the company do Huawei?
Obviously, if it were not for a similar problem with sanctions, initiated by the US government, today Huawei could become the leader of the world market, but instead, we are seeing a serious deterioration in performance in the fourth quarter of 2019. Huawei previously said that even if the sanctions are lifted, it will not return to Google services, and this is a serious reputational blow to the American company. It is unlikely that in the future, Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo will fully trust their counterparts in the United States. In addition, not so long ago Xiaomi announced that she has a plan in case the US leads sanctions against her. This situation is not very good for Google, and it's obvious. If the company Huawei manages to tidy up its app store, it will be a good example for others who instead of Google services will use services Huawei, simply because the Chinese trust the Chinese more, which is logical. Plus, Huawei offers a much lower percentage on its app store as a tax – just 15% compared to 30% on Google Play. This fact pushes app and game developers to take the App Gallery support issue more seriously.
It is very interesting what the sales of the company Huawei will be in 2020, because the recession is really very strong and not typical. Worldwide phone sales Huawei account for 40% of total sales, and at least you can expect a drop by that same 40%. In the worst case, the company can be turned away from within China, and the current state of affairs related to the spread of the new virus should not be discounted. Many already say that the new virus will seriously affect the economic situation in China, and, undoubtedly, the company Huawei may become part of all this. Already, in Russia, the supply of all Chinese devices for 2 weeks is prohibited, and it is not known what will happen next.
Another trump card in hand Huawei is its own operating system HarmonyOS. This is a new generation OS based on a microkernel, it can be installed both on smart watches and light bulbs, as well as on personal computers and smartphones. And due to special optimizations, as well as the removal of excess kernel code Linux, Huawei will make the system more optimized in comparison with Android. So far, of course, it is too early to say. But it is possible that the scenario could be just that, and many companies will want to use the system Huawei in their phones. In this case, Google is certainly not to be envied. It is interesting to know what our readers think about this. Share your opinion in the comments and do not forget to subscribe to us in Telegram.