Huawei becomes world’s top smartphone vendor in FY Q2 2020

For several years, Huawei has been attempting to overthrow Samsung from its position as a global leader in smartphone sales.

Two years ago, Huawei overtook Apple in smartphone sales, and remained in second place behind Samsung.

However, a recent report from analytics company Canalys says that for the first time ever, Huawei shipped more smartphones in the previous fiscal quarter than any other company on the market.

The report adds this does not necessarily mean that Huawei will continue to remain in the first position for long, as it occupied this position mainly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sales.

Huawei’s phone sales decreased by 5 per cent during the period (55.8 million) compared to Samsung, whose sales plunged by 30 per cent (53.7 million).

Also, the majority of Huawei phone sales (70 per cent) were in China, while Samsung was further impacted by the diversity of its markets around the world.

Canalys chief analyst added that had it not been for the pandemic, Huawei would probably have not been able to achieve its goal of dominating global smartphone sales.

It should be noted that Huawei is now mainly dependent on its sales inside China, as it is difficult for it to sell its smartphones abroad with the ban imposed by the US coupled with the lack of access to Google services on their devices.

But despite this US ban on Huawei , the company was also able to outperform Apple last February as the coronavirus outbreak began spreading around the world .

Analysts expect Samsung phone sales to recover in the next few months, and to rise back to the top position in the third financial quarter of this year.

This story originally appeared on MENA Tech