Huawei is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in China and the company is doing quite well. According to CINNO Research, Canalys and IDC, Huawei comfortably led the Chinese smartphone market in 2020. However, Huawei’s interest is not in China alone. The company is also interested in the global market although the U.S. ban is inhibiting its growth (in terms of smartphones) globally. Huawei recently announced that it will create 110 new jobs in Ireland by the end of 2022. Furthermore, the company plans to invest over $80 million in local R&D activities.
The new jobs involve multiple business areas such as sales, R&D, and IT development. The company said that these positions will be mainly located in the Dublin headquarters and Cork and Athlone. In the past 15 months, the company has added 200 jobs in Ireland. Presently, the company has a total of 480 employees. Huawei stated that the new investment was made with the support of continued demand for the company’s products and services.
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Huawei’s smartphone business outside China is still nosediving. Without Google Mobile Services, its sales will continue to drop. However, we can not say the same for the Chinese market. Nevertheless, the lack of chips may also force the company to lose China.
Huawei may not be able to hold its leading position
Huawei’s shipments in the fourth quarter shrank by nearly 50% year-on-year. The demand for Huawei’s products is still huge, Huawei may not be able to meet the demand in the future. Other leading manufacturers are targeting this opportunity. Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and others are seriously competing for Huawei’s offline channel in China.
Apple’s performance in China in 2020 will be significant. Driven by the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models, the annual shipment volume has finally returned to the level of 2018. The shipment volume in the fourth quarter even reached Apple’s number since 2015. Since the release of the iPhone 6S in the fourth quarter, it has the highest shipment record in the Chinese market.
The timing of Apple’s launch of the new iPhone 12 in China coincided with the time when Huawei was discontinuing the supply. Huawei is Apple’s only strong competitor in the high-end segment, and its flagship Mate series shipped less than 4 million units in the fourth quarter. However, Apple has not relaxed the market promotion of iPhone12, including launching online promotion activities on major e-commerce platforms across the country.
