Huawei Gains On Apple In China Premium Smartphones

Huawei Technology’s sales of premium smartphones in China surged 34 percent year-on-year in the quarter ended September giving the company 33 percent of the market and narrowing the lead of Apple, according to new figures from market researcher Canalys.

Apple saw its iPhone shipments on the Chinese mainland decline 5 percent in the same period, but still leads in the premium smartphone segment with a 52 percent market share.

China’s smartphone market, the world’s largest, is set to show its first growth in five years in 2024.

The figures reflect strong continued sales of the Mate 60 range, which Huawei launched last year in a surprise comeback after years of US sanctions that began in 2019.

Foldables

Huawei also shipped some 1.12 million foldable handsets for the quarter, up 97 percent year-on-year, maintaining its position as the top seller of foldables in mainland China ahead of Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics, according to a November report from research firm CINNO.

Huawei launched its attention-grabbing trifold smartphone, the Mate XT, in September and the handset remains in tight supply amidst strong demand.

Demand for artificial intelligence-equipped handsets helped the high-end smartphone segment to grow by 15 percent worldwide in the third quarter, Canalys said.

In spite of the slight sales decline, Apple accounted for half of the top 10 smartphone models in China for the quarter, led by the iPhone 15 Pro Max, according to Canalys figures.

Huawei’s Pura 70 series ranked sixth in shipments among all high-end smartphone models on the mainland during the quarter.

HarmonyOS Next

Honor held 5 percent of the premium smartphone market, followed by 3 percent for both Xiaomi and Samsung.

Apple dominated the global premium segment with a 63 percent share amidst a 10 percent year-on-year sales increase, boosted by the iPhone 16, which launched in September.

Samsung held the No. 2 spot with a 21 percent global market share, followed by Huawei with 8 percent.

Huawei launched the Mate 70 range in November and an executive told China’s state-owned Securities Times newspaper last week that demand was “excessive”.

He Gang, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, told the paper that reservations for the phone, which do not require a deposit, had exceeded 6.7 million.

Analysts said the Mate 70 range is likely to generate less excitement than its predecessor due to a relatively underpowered processor and the use of HarmonyOS Next, which removes support for Android apps.

New processor

Canadian research firm TechInsights found in a teardown last week that the Mate 70 range feature the Kirin 9010 and 9020 chips, which it said “underperform” compared to the latest chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek.

“Despite hardware improvements and new AI features, the delayed release and modest chipset updates could limit its sales potential,” said TechInsights analysts Peng Peng and Linda Sui.

The Kirin chips are designed by Huawei’s own in-house HiSilicon unit and are manufactured domestically by US-sanctioned SMIC.

During the Mate 70’s launch Huawei downplayed the processor, instead highlighting AI features and the HarmonyOS Next operating system.