Smartphone sales are growing again, and Huawei is on the rise

Back in February, Gartner revealed that, for the first time in more than a decade, smartphone sales have declined. Just a wee bit, mind, but still declined.

That may cause some worry for market analysts and manufacturers if that trend continued for months. Fortunately for everyone involved and invested in the market, that’s not the case. At the end of the first quarter of 2018, smartphone sales are back up. But more importantly, one of the winners in that quarter is Huawei, one of the most well appreciated OEMs in Mzansi, according to their latest sales figures.

The growth that Gartner is talking about, however, isn’t a huge rebound from the previous quarter. For some manufacturers, growth has stalled or slowed down. That includes Samsung, though it remains to be the top dog in terms of Smartphone sales. Its biggest problems come from the rise of Chinese brands across all tiers as well as the overall decline of premium smartphone purchase in the market.

Aptly, Huawei’s new P20 devices are already proving to be among SA’s most desirable smartphones, with sales of this range increasing by 60% compared to their predecessor, the Huawei P10 series. These figures are for the six weeks after the release of the P20 series. Sales of the P20 Lite have also escalated by an impressive 150% compared to the P10 Lite for the same period. In addition, April sales numbers of the P20 series even surpassed that of the Samsung S9.

Apple, however, managed to catch up with delayed sales to make its 2018 entry a bit more encouraging. It’s still not as high though, especially given the high prices of last year’s iPhones, particularly the iPhone X. Like Samsung, Apple is expected to shake up its strategy this year with an LCD iPhone that bears the design as the iPhone X, just cheaper.

Despite its troubles in the US, Huawei retains its top three spot and even managed to grow a bit. It may need to find a way to resolve those political hurdles, though, if it wants to see even bigger growth. Right now, ZTE might be the scapegoat for US-China problems, though it’s only a matter of time before Huawei takes its place that side.

The biggest winner, however, is Xiaomi, which saw a 124% increase year on year. Admittedly, it only sells a third of what the likes of Samsung make, but it still proves how much potential there is in other markets.

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Papi Mabele

Papi Mabele has a marketing background, he is a digital marketing expert with extensive experience in launching and building global brands in the emerging markets. Papi is also an avid tech writer, enthusiast and all round tech junkie. As a freelance writer and analyst he has been numerously published in Popular Mechanics (SA), GQ South Africa, Premier Magazine, Driven Magazine, Bloem News, Courant, The Weekly, Enthooze Magazine and PiE magazine amongst others.