Huawei Saw 26% YOY Growth In Smartphone Sales Despite The US Ban

Dhir Acharya - Oct 17, 2019

Huawei is facing many difficulties in the US market, but that doesn’t seem to stop the Chinese giant from scoring an impressive sales number for its phones.

Huawei is currently facing a lot of difficulties in the US market, but that doesn’t seem to stop the Chinese giant from scoring an impressive sales number for its phones. In particular, the company shipped 185 million units within Q1, 2, and 3 of this year. That means, according to the company on Tuesday, Huawei has had year-over-year growth of 26 percent.

huawei-phone-sales-growth-despite-us-ban-1 — Despite the US ban, Huawei managed to sell 185 million phones

Besides, the company has also seen a year-on-year increase of 24.4 percent in its electronics business, resulting in $86 billion in revenue. Previously, Huawei predicted a reduction of $10 billion in sales for the phone division in the summer after being blacklisted in the United States.

Furthermore, the Chinese phone maker signed over 60 additional commercial contracts that it will global carriers with 5G networking equipment, such as Maxis from Malaysia.

Earlier 2019, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei CEO and founder, lowered his estimates for the total 2019 revenue for the company to $110 billion from $130 billion after the US ban.

huawei-phone-sales-growth-despite-us-ban-2 — New phones like the Mate 30 are affected by the ban

US Commerce Department blacklisted the company in May after US President signed an executive order effectively banning it from communications networks in the country. The order required US firms to obtain a license to be able to do business with the firm citing national security concerns from the close relationship between Huawei and the Chinese government.

The banning order hurt the firm’s latest flagship smartphones like the Mate 30 as they won’t be fully supported for Android by Google. The phones rely on Android open source instead, meaning they don’t come with Google services or apps. And with workaround eliminated, users of the Mate 30 are forced to switch to Huawei apps and services. This can have a negative impact on the company’s phone sales in the long run.

Last year, Huawei took over Apple to become the second-largest phone seller in the world, and earlier this year, it even aimed to take on Samsung and become the world’s No. 1 vendor.