News briefing

       According to the global smartphone sales report released by IDC at the end of October, Xiaomi has already squeezed Apple out with a market share of 13.1% in the third quarter and marched up the rankings to reach No. 3 for the first time, with its sales volume reaching 46.5 million pieces. Now it trails behind Huawei, which ranks No. 2 by a rather insignificant difference, whose sales volume comes to 51.9 million pieces.  

According to the global smartphone sales report released by IDC at the end of October
Impact analysis
 

        Regarding the competition between Samsung, Huawei, and Apple, these key players in the trade have held the top three spots for global smartphones for some time, and this initial ranking was published right after the ban on Huawei came into effect. The results have showed that the strike levied by the United States clearly caused significant harm to Huawei. Furthermore, it happened when the new Apple model’s release onto the market was delayed, seriously impacting the sales volume as of deferred consumption, so that the final displayed result appears quite different from that of the past. Therefore, we should conduct additional discussions from the following perspective:
 

      In observation of the market share changes among the top five brands throughout the first to third quarters in 2019 and 2020 (a total of six quarters), the aggregate of market share taken up by mainland brands has continued to linger around 35% and 39%, regardless of their growth and decline. Even if significant ranking changes are found in this quarterly ranking, the combined market share of Huawei, Xiaomi, and VIVO continue to persist at 36.7%, which is considered a minimal difference from 36.1% in 3Q19. Therefore, though the results have shown that Huawei has suffered some damage, other brands from the mainland have filled the void. In other words, the stable pattern structured by mainland brands in the mindset of consumers has been well established.

 

        While a decline in Huawei's sales is anticipated, in view of the overall mobile phone market, the average price may not change much with regard to the perspective of product positioning if the gap is primarily filled by Apple. As for the trade of PCB of Taiwan, it may benefit from the effect of a transfer order brought by Apple, rendering some help to the specifications of PCB products. However, the timing of Apple’s new phone release this season is simply unable to catch up with the moment for market reshuffling; it thus remains hard to tell how vigorous its strength will be in replacing Huawei. Nevertheless, if the conflict between the US and China continues, the market share of Huawei is unlikely to reverse upward. Therefore, there is still much to consider and look forward to regarding whether the launch of new products will upset the current balance.