Huawei has (briefly) overtaken Samsung as the world’s top smartphone vendor

Right, so this’ll likely provoke a few arguments. Huawei has, likely for a short while, dethroned Samsung as the world’s top smartphone vendor. That’s based on a report from Canalys which states that the Chinese company has outshipped every other smartphone maker on the planet for the first time. But, perhaps, not for the last.

And, lest you think that Canalys is thumb-sucking numbers, we’ve also seen similar information from another market research firm, Omdia, regarding Huawei’s performance in the market. Huawei shipped 55.8 million units worldwide in Q2 2020, compared to Samsung’s 54.3 million units. But, before you get too excited, both companies reported a decline in shipments for the period.

A taste of things to come

The current position is likely to be temporary, according to Canalys’ report. Huawei’s decline in shipments was less than Samsung’s because of… you guessed it, COVID-19. The bulk of Huawei’s sales are in China, a country that’s getting over the whole pandemic thing, while Samsung’s market over the period was largely shut down. And when a country is shut down, it’s a little hard to ship smartphones in. With Samsung’s markets opening up again, it might be a while before Huawei manages an upset like this a second time.

But it’s no secret that that’s Huawei’s aim. The Chinese company has its eye on the top spot for years, climbing the smartphone ranks until it’s now one of the top smartphone brands in the world. Huawei’s probably not going to stop until it takes the number one spot and hangs on to it for a while — at least, until someone newer, hungrier, and more innovative comes along to take it from them. Kinda like how they’re approaching Samsung now, really.