Huawei stays ahead in mobile phone sales

Huawei Technologies Co grabbed a record high share of 42 percent in the domestic smartphone market during the third quarter of this year, with an annual growth rate of 66 percent even as most of its rivals posted sharp declines, a new report said on Wednesday.

The world's second largest smartphone vendor shipped 41.5 million handsets to the Chinese market from July to September, extending its market lead further as local consumers lent support to the Chinese brand which is facing curbs from the US government.

Data from the market research company Canalys showed that the Chinese smartphone market still contracted by 3 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier. Huawei, however, achieved a sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth during the period.

Nicole Peng, Canalys vice-president of mobility, said: "Huawei opened a huge gap between itself and other vendors. It has over 25 percent more share than this quarter's runner-up."

Shadowed by Huawei's strong performance, the remaining top five vendors, namely Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Apple, ranked in that order, all shrank further. Their combined share only accounted for 50 percent of the market, down from 54 percent in the second quarter of 2019 and 64 percent in the third quarter of 2018.

"The dominant position gives Huawei a lot of power to negotiate with the supply chain and increase its wallet share within channel partners. Huawei is in a strong position to consolidate its dominance further amid 5G network rollout, given its tight relationships with telecom operators and stronger control over key components such as 5G chipsets compatible with local networks," Peng said.

China's three major telecom operators are scheduled to officially launch their 5G data package plans on Thursday, which is expected to give a big push to 5G smartphones. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have already pushed 5G preregistration with plentiful discounts and free 5G data allowance and managed to attract interest from more than 10 million subscribers.

As Huawei continues its robust sales performance in China, a string of smaller vendors are stepping up their push to tap overseas markets. Transsion Holdings Ltd, a Shenzhen-based phone maker, for instance, has been dedicated to targeting consumers in the African continent for years. The company recently got listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board, commonly known as the STAR Market.

Transsion said the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company in the first three quarters hit 1.3 billion yuan ($184 million), marking a year-on-year jump of 732 percent. Its revenue in the first nine months of this year hit 16.86 billion yuan, rising 6.7 percent year-on-year.