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After Surpassing Apple In 2018, Huawei Vies For Smartphone Supremacy In 2019
Feb 7, 2019, 12:28am
It's official, we've reached peak smartphone in 2017 as markets including the U.S., Europe, and China—the world's biggest market for smartphone sales—hit saturation.
According to IHS Markit, the global smartphone market ended 2018 on a downturn, with shipments declining 2.4% from the previous year—from 1.44 billion units in 2017 down to 1.41 billion units in 2018.
However, this did not come as a total surprise for market observers: The cumulative unit-shipment volume of global smartphones during the first three quarters of 2018 was already down 1% from the same period a year ago, exceeding a billion units.
And Apple's decision to stop disclosing iPhone sales last November was another alarming indicator that the market was heading the wrong way.
In 2018, Samsung still led the global smartphone market despite sales declining 8% with 20.5% market share followed by Huawei (14.6%) and Apple (14.53%) with Nokia (1%) making a surprising comeback in the top 10 list of the world's largest phone manufacturers, after a 3-year hiatus.
IHS Markit's latest ranking also includes Xiaomi (8.5%), Oppo (8.1%), Vivo (7.37%), LG (3.2%), Motorola (2.7%) and TCL-Alcatel (1.2%).
Atherton Research's Take
With 290 million units in 2018, an 8% decline from 316 million units in 2017, it's the first time the South Korean technology giant shipped fewer than 300 million units per year since 2014.
Samsung is facing stiff competition from Chinese rivals including Huawei, Honor, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi that have out-innovate the world's largest smartphone and chip maker shipping faster phones, all-screen designs with in-display fingerprint readers, pop-up selfie cameras, sliding phones, massive batteries, and ultra-fast charging.
And 2019 is not looking any different: Chinese phone makers are already touting foldable phones and 5G devices ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world's largest mobile event that officially kicks off at the end of the month in Barcelona, Spain, which directly compete with upcoming products the South Korean company plans to unveil at its "Unpacked" event in San Francisco on February 20.
Huawei
Despite serious political, legal and economic headwinds, Huawei managed to ship more than 200 million smartphones, slightly better than Apple, continuing its double-digit year on year growth (+35%) thanks to good results in China, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
At an event in Beijing last month, Richard Yu, the CEO of the Chinese company's Consumer Business Group (CBG), said that Huawei could become the number one smartphone manufacturer as early as 2019, surpassing Samsung.
With $52 billion in revenues in 2018, Huawei's CBG is the telecom giant's largest unit, representing more than half of its $100 billion total revenues expected—the first Chinese company to actually cross the $100 billion mark.
Despite Huawei's double-digit growth in smartphones and Samsung's decline, we believe that reaching the top spot in smartphone unit sales could still prove a tall order for the Shenzhen-based tech giant.
Especially without any significant presence in the U.S. market—Huawei's sub-brand Honor sells smartphones and wearables online in the U.S. while Huawei also sells laptops, tablets, and wearables through Amazon, B&H, and other e-tailers—and while facing the significant challenges mentioned above.
Apple
Despite a 5% decline of iPhone shipments last year, from 216 million units in 2017 to 205 million units in 2018, mostly attributed to a drop in sales in China and the high cost of its devices, Apple still managed to post record revenues and profits last year. However, we do expect a stabilization of iPhone sales with Apple adopting a more aggressive pricing strategy in 2019—easier trade-ins, flexible pricing depending on countries and currencies, local manufacturing (India) and outright discounts.
As we mentioned in an earlier report, we don't expect Apple to release a 5G iPhone before 2020. However, 5G mainstream consumer services, on a global basis, will be limited this year. So, the lack of a 5G device should not impact too much iPhone sales in 2019 or even into the first part of 2020.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanba...or-smartphone-supremacy-in-2019/#7f6d55641400
Feb 7, 2019, 12:28am
It's official, we've reached peak smartphone in 2017 as markets including the U.S., Europe, and China—the world's biggest market for smartphone sales—hit saturation.
According to IHS Markit, the global smartphone market ended 2018 on a downturn, with shipments declining 2.4% from the previous year—from 1.44 billion units in 2017 down to 1.41 billion units in 2018.
However, this did not come as a total surprise for market observers: The cumulative unit-shipment volume of global smartphones during the first three quarters of 2018 was already down 1% from the same period a year ago, exceeding a billion units.
And Apple's decision to stop disclosing iPhone sales last November was another alarming indicator that the market was heading the wrong way.
In 2018, Samsung still led the global smartphone market despite sales declining 8% with 20.5% market share followed by Huawei (14.6%) and Apple (14.53%) with Nokia (1%) making a surprising comeback in the top 10 list of the world's largest phone manufacturers, after a 3-year hiatus.
IHS Markit's latest ranking also includes Xiaomi (8.5%), Oppo (8.1%), Vivo (7.37%), LG (3.2%), Motorola (2.7%) and TCL-Alcatel (1.2%).
Atherton Research's Take
With 290 million units in 2018, an 8% decline from 316 million units in 2017, it's the first time the South Korean technology giant shipped fewer than 300 million units per year since 2014.
Samsung is facing stiff competition from Chinese rivals including Huawei, Honor, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi that have out-innovate the world's largest smartphone and chip maker shipping faster phones, all-screen designs with in-display fingerprint readers, pop-up selfie cameras, sliding phones, massive batteries, and ultra-fast charging.
And 2019 is not looking any different: Chinese phone makers are already touting foldable phones and 5G devices ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world's largest mobile event that officially kicks off at the end of the month in Barcelona, Spain, which directly compete with upcoming products the South Korean company plans to unveil at its "Unpacked" event in San Francisco on February 20.
Huawei
Despite serious political, legal and economic headwinds, Huawei managed to ship more than 200 million smartphones, slightly better than Apple, continuing its double-digit year on year growth (+35%) thanks to good results in China, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
At an event in Beijing last month, Richard Yu, the CEO of the Chinese company's Consumer Business Group (CBG), said that Huawei could become the number one smartphone manufacturer as early as 2019, surpassing Samsung.
With $52 billion in revenues in 2018, Huawei's CBG is the telecom giant's largest unit, representing more than half of its $100 billion total revenues expected—the first Chinese company to actually cross the $100 billion mark.
Despite Huawei's double-digit growth in smartphones and Samsung's decline, we believe that reaching the top spot in smartphone unit sales could still prove a tall order for the Shenzhen-based tech giant.
Especially without any significant presence in the U.S. market—Huawei's sub-brand Honor sells smartphones and wearables online in the U.S. while Huawei also sells laptops, tablets, and wearables through Amazon, B&H, and other e-tailers—and while facing the significant challenges mentioned above.
Apple
Despite a 5% decline of iPhone shipments last year, from 216 million units in 2017 to 205 million units in 2018, mostly attributed to a drop in sales in China and the high cost of its devices, Apple still managed to post record revenues and profits last year. However, we do expect a stabilization of iPhone sales with Apple adopting a more aggressive pricing strategy in 2019—easier trade-ins, flexible pricing depending on countries and currencies, local manufacturing (India) and outright discounts.
As we mentioned in an earlier report, we don't expect Apple to release a 5G iPhone before 2020. However, 5G mainstream consumer services, on a global basis, will be limited this year. So, the lack of a 5G device should not impact too much iPhone sales in 2019 or even into the first part of 2020.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanba...or-smartphone-supremacy-in-2019/#7f6d55641400
