Huawei rises from the dead, outsells iPhone in China

Enlarge / The Huawei Mate 60 Pro+. It’s a phone made without most of the traditional US-allied suppliers. (credit: Huawei)

Counterpoint Research has an interesting new report on the return of Huawei in China. Market share for the Chinese government’s favorite tech company has shot up 64 percent for the first six weeks of 2024. Counterpoint says this is thanks to “continued demand for Huawei’s Mate 60 series,” Huawei’s first big smartphone release in its US-sanctions comeback tour.

Counterpoint says the market share for the major US incumbent, Apple, has plummeted 24 percent in 2024, allowing Huawei’s 17 percent market share to beat Apple’s 16 percent. For the early days of the year, Huawei is now the No. 2 smartphone manufacturer in China, Vivo is No. 1, and Apple is tied for third with Honor, a Huawei offshoot. I bet the Chinese government is thrilled.

Huawei was supposed to be dead! For a time, the company was crushed by US sanctions, which really kicked in around 2021. The company mostly retracted to China-only distribution and lost most of its market share thanks to dwindling chip supplies. A few years later, Huawei is getting its homegrown ecosystem back in gear, enough to release the Mate 60 Pro, the company’s post-sanctions flagship.