Customers at a Huawei licensed experience store purchase devices on October 30, 2020 in Suzhou, China.
Fred Lee | Getty Images News | Getty Images
GUANGZHOU, China – Huawei’s smartphone shipments have continued to fall as a result of U.S. sanctions, causing the formerly No. 1 supplier in the world to fall below rivals like Apple.
The Chinese technology giant shipped 33 million smartphones globally in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 41% decline year-over-year, putting its market share at 8%, according to data released by Counterpoint Research on Thursday.
That made Huawei the sixth largest smartphone maker in the December quarter, behind Chinese rivals like Oppo and Vivo and far behind Apple and Samsung.
Data released by Canalys on Thursday showed that Huawei sold 32 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, down nearly 43% from last year. It is the first time Huawei has moved out of the top five in six years, Canalys said.
“Huawei has dropped dramatically in most markets as a result of US sanctions,” Amber Liu, an analyst at Canalys Research, said in a report.
The latest figures mark a sharp drop for Huawei compared to the second quarter of 2020, when it was number 1 in the world in shipments.
Throughout 2020, Huawei was the third largest in smartphone sales, according to research companies. Huawei responded to the latest figures by looking at its position as third.
“Huawei has always been committed to innovation and dedicated itself to creating more value for consumers with better products. In the last year, our smartphone business has developed robustly and tablet, PC and wearable have grown significantly. We remain confident in the future, “the company said in a statement.
Huawei’s problems come when Apple ships 90.1 million phones during the fourth quarter, the highest number ever sold by any supplier in the history of smartphones, according to IDC. Apple also recorded a fourth record revenue in China.
Indeed, U.S. sanctions are affecting Huawei’s smartphone business. In 2019, Huawei was placed on a U.S. blacklist called the List of Entities, which restricted U.S. companies from exporting key components and software for the company.
The biggest effect of this was to cut Huawei from Google’s Android operating system. This is no big deal in China, where Google services, like Gmail and search, are blocked. But in international markets, it has been the key to Huawei’s growth, as consumers are used to these services.