Huawei trumps Samsung as top smartphone vendor this quarter

Thanks to a Covid-19 slump from Samsung, China’s smartphone giant Huawei has shipped more handsets than any other vendor in the last quarter.

Huawei’s long harboured ambition to trump Samsung to the title of biggest smartphone seller has finally come to fruition, according to a new report from analyst firm Canalys.

Like most industries, smartphone manufacturing and sales have been altered drastically by circumstantial conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and China’s tech powerhouse has certainly found a silver lining.

Despite being down 5 percent on last year’s shipping figures, Huawei has seen a major boost up the company rankings throughout the April-June period. Canalys’ figure of 55.8 million is enough to see Huawei finally climb above staunch leaders Samsung, who slid 30 percent to 53.7 million units in the same quarter.

Though execs at Huawei will be positively chuffed with their latest milestone, they will have to concede that they’re probably on borrowed time at the top. Having been hit hardest earliest by the pandemic, China was able to begin its economic recovery way ahead of the Western world, and with 70 percent of Huawei’s devices being sold in China – where Samsung is anything but a major player – it doesn’t take an industry expert to determine how Huawei has come out on top.

Huawei Overtakes Samsung to Become World's Largest Smartphone Maker [Report]… https://t.co/by5VITNSLt pic.twitter.com/hCLElVOUMk

— iClarified (@iClarified) July 30, 2020

Given China’s recent track record in the mainstream media, what with the continued persecution of Uighur Muslims, the administering of security law, India’s ban of TikTok, and most pertinent: the banning of Huawei devices in the US over links to government intelligence services, it is a little surprising to see China’s central tech proprietor flourishing so soon after lockdown.

Huawei smartphones do boast some impressive hardware, but you’d expect China’s ousting of Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google would really hamper Huawei’s growth in both the short and long-term. I guess what this does demonstrate is that negative press and external pressures aren’t imposing much of a threat to China and its internal businesses as it stands.

Samsung expects better sales as it gears up with a whole host of new gadgets for the next quarter, but if Huawei manages to stay atop its perch in the months ahead there will be some serious eyebrows a‘raising in the tech capitals of the world.