In the first quarter of this year, the sales of many Chinese mobile phone brands declined. However, Huawei’s mobile phone sales have bucked the trend and soared by 41%. This makes the company the only mobile phone brand with positive growth besides Apple. A few days ago, market research agency Counterpoint released its latest survey data. This data is for the market trend in the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2023, China’s mobile phone sales fell by 5% year-on-year, the lowest sales figure in the first quarter since 2014.
Amongst the brands in the top 10, Huawei’s performance seems to be more interesting. The brand’s sales volume rose by 41% year-on-year. Although Huawei Mate 50 series, P60 series and the newly launched Huawei nova 10 series do not support 5G, they are still welcomed by the market. Data show that Huawei’s market share in the first quarter has risen to 9.2%. The company is second only to Apple, OPPO, Vivo, Honor and Xiaomi.
Huawei says it cant launch 5G phones
On March 31, at the press conference of Huawei’s 2022 annual report, regarding when 5G mobile phones will return, Xu Zhijun, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said that the mobile phone business is most affected by sanctions.
The US Department of Commerce only licenses 4G chips, and we can only make 4G phones. Huawei mobile phones have improved in terms of camera, folding screen, etc. The brand’s recent sales data reveals many people are still willing to use 4G mobile phones. To buy a Huawei 5G mobile phone, you have to wait for permission from the US Department of Commerce.
While there is a huge theoretical difference between 4G and 5G networks, this difference in many cases is not so obvious practically. If you have a 5G phone with poor optimization, its network speed could be slower than a 4G device.