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| Huawei's competitors want to take advantage of the problems |
After tightening US sanctions that have crippled the company's supply chain, Huawei's Chinese rivals, including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, are taking drastic steps to steal market share from their major competitors.
Huawei sold its sub-brand Honor earlier this month to protect the Honor supply chain from US measures that are making core components difficult to obtain.
Huawei's Chinese competitors hope to take advantage of the difficulties they face to gain a larger share of the mid-range and leading cell phone market.
(Derek Wang) Derek Wang, CEO of mobile phone maker Realme (shared supply chain with OPPO), said that Chinese companies are improving their outlook for the next year.
He added: Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo believe that the sanctions imposed on Huawei are hurting the international market, and Chinese competitors are hoping to gain market share from Huawei.
Realme, which was founded in 2018, is doubling its smartphone shipments to 50 million units this year, according to Wang.
He said: Realme has set up its own base to supply low cost products to Southeast Asia and India. Regardless of Huawei's stance, Realme hopes to target Europe and China via flagships next year.
In August, the US Department of Commerce blocked Huawei's access to US technology required for Huawei's cellular business on the grounds that it posed a threat to Huawei's security. The Chinese company denied the allegation.
Huawei briefly overtook Samsung in the first half of this year and became the world's largest smartphone maker. Deliveries in the third quarter decreased 23% to 51.7 million units.
Huawei gained another 41.2% market share in the third quarter, followed by Vivo with 18.4%, Oppo with 16.8%, and Xiaomi with 12.6%.
Industry watchers confirmed the increase in supplier orders. Xiaomi ordered up to 100 million mobile phones between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 50% from the previous August restrictions.
The data shows that since August, OPPO and Vivo production expectations have also increased by about 8%, with orders reaching 90 million and 70 million, respectively.
On the contrary, Huawei's orders decreased by 55% to 42 million units.