For the past two years, Chinese manufacturer, Huawei, has been battling with multiple bans from the U.S. The U.S. government keeps tightening the ban on Huawei in an attempt to ground the company. However, it appears that the U.S. ban does not significantly affect Huawei. The ban only affects its smartphone business and that’s it. Huawei is a multinational company with a plethora of businesses. Although its smartphone business is clearly one of the most lucrative, its tablet PC business is not doing badly.
According to a recent report from IDC, Huawei’s tablet PC business continues to increase. Generally, the performance of major manufacturers of tablet PCs in the first quarter of 2021 is outstanding. The total shipment hit 39.9 million units, an increase of 55.2%. This is the first time that the tablet PC market will grow by such a huge percentage. Since the 56.9% year-on-year increase in the third quarter of 2013, this scale of growth has never occurred.
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Apple leads the tablet PC market
However, Apple’s iPad still dominates the tablet PC market. Apple shipped 12.7 million units this quarter. This is a 64.3% year-on-year increase relative to its 7.7 million units shipment in the same period last year. This allows Apple to account for 31.7% of the market share, a slight increase from last year’s 30%. Apple has always been in control of the tablet PC market.
After Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Amazon, and Huawei (excluding Honor) follow. Samsung’s tablet shipment increased by 60.8% this quarter and successfully won 20% of the market. Similarly, Lenovo, Amazon, and Huawei have all grown. However, Huawei’s growth rate is only 1.7% which is considered as “too low”. Nevertheless, if we consider its recent travails from the U.S., its position in the top 5 is just enough. As a result of its (Huawei) small overall growth, the company’s market share is very small also.
Even with the addition of Honor’s performance, there is no significant boost to Huawei’s performance. In addition, IDC also announced the latest Chromebook data. The top 5 in the market has not changed, and it is still HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, and Samsung.
Huawei’s consumer business CEO, Yu Chengdong, said “In less than two years, the United States imposed four rounds of sanctions on Huawei. The business is in an extreme dilemma… The high-end products are mainly given to Apple”.
Do you think Huawei will find a way around the U.S. ban? Will the Chinese manufacturer eventually close its smartphone business? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below
