Global smartphone shipments fell by 11.7 per cent in the first quarter, according to IDC, a market intelligence firm.
As the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreads around the world, the shipments of the top three phone brands have been hit to varying degrees.
Affected by the global challenge, the mobile phone market, which was expected to warm up, was in a downtrend in Q1 with all major manufacturers being faced by unprecedented severe tests.
The competitive balance remains solid in the mobile phone market with Samsung, Huawei, and Apple still the top three players in the global mobile phone market.
According to IDC, in the first quarter, handset shipments of Samsung, Huawei (including Honor) and Apple were 58.3 million, 49 million, and 36.7 million units respectively, which means Huawei held onto its ‘Number 2’ position.
Although the mobile phone market as a whole declined, some niche offered comforting news. According to the latest research of Strategy Analytics, the global shipment of 5G smartphones surged to more than 24 million in the first quarter of 2020, greatly exceeding the shipment of 5G smartphones in 2019, which was 18.7 million.
Samsung and Huawei continue to maintain their leading positions in the 5G smartphone field. In Q1, Huawei’s shipment of 5G smartphones reached eight million units, ranking Number 2 in the world.
Huawei and Samsung (8.3 million units) captured 68 per cent of the global market share of 5G smartphones. 5G models such as Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro are popular among users.
New devices released in the first quarter, such as Huawei P40 series and Samsung S20 series, would contribute to the shipments in the second quarter.
However, unless they can generate over 10 million shipments, the fundamentals would remain the same.
Huawei takes advantage of the “safe haven” of the Chinese market and attains growth against the trend.
China’s mobile phone market was hit the earliest by the pandemic, and has shown ups and downs in Q1 throughout the outbreak, control and gradually ease of the situation.
The smartphone sales in China plunged by an unprecedented 22 per cent in the first quarter, according to Counterpoint.
The impact of COVID-19 on both demand and supply sides were felt firstly in China.
For instance, Vivo and Oppo, which heavily relied on offline market dropped by nearly 30 per cent, with each down by 27 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
Xiaomi fell by a stunning 35 per cent year-on-year.
Huawei was the only brand to see sales growth in China market in the first quarter, with total sales being 28.7 million units, up by six per cent from the previous quarter, outstripping the sum of Oppo and Vivo. Huawei managed to attain the growth against the market trend.
In the past March, as the COVID-19 eased in China, and mobile phone production gradually restored, Chinese vendors were the first to recover, and the Chinese mobile phone market is serving as a “safe haven”.
Huawei climbs up by leveraging such a “safe haven”. Its Mate 30 series and Nova 6 series feature industry-leading image experience, optimal 5G solutions, and the distributed operating system that offers seamlessly connectivity in all scenarios.
These solid product advantages make Huawei mobile phones the first choice for many users when it comes to replacing their phones. In March, Huawei took 43 per cent handset market shares in China, ranking “Number 1”.
