Huawei has faced strong headwinds in recent months following the US and China’s “trade war”.
This includes the US forcing Google to limit Huawei’s access to Android – the operating system which runs on its smartphones.
Despite this, Huawei has continued to show excellent growth in the smartphone segment and recently reported that it has shipped over 200 million phones in 2019.
Huawei said this was thanks to its new range of devices, such as the P30 and Mate 30, and that it expects this growth to continue in 2020.
South Africa
In South Africa, Huawei’s success in the smartphone market is equally impressive.
Locally, Huawei’s market share was 37.9% for smartphones priced at $100 or above as of August 2019.
Additionally, the company said its value share has improved from 18.2% in 2017 to 34.5% in South Africa in the second quarter of 2019.
The next step, Huawei said, is to overtake Samsung in South Africa in terms of smartphone dominance.
When it comes to Android devices, Samsung and Huawei are the go-to choices for local consumers.
Huawei vs Samsung
The reasons for Huawei’s local success are numerous, but two standout elements are its strong marketing campaigns and the massive value for money its smartphones offer.
Huawei is constantly promoting its smartphones through multiple channels, highlighting their strong points.
On the value-for-money side, when compared to Samsung, Huawei’s offering is excellent.
This evidenced when we compare the two brands’ flagships devices from this year, along with their recently-launched phones in the “high mid-range” segment.
Device | Price |
---|---|
Huawei P30 Lite | R5,499 |
Huawei P30 | R10,499 |
Huawei Nova 5t | R12,499 |
Samsung Galaxy A80 | R12,499 |
Huawei P30 Pro | R14,499 |
Samsung Galaxy S10e | R14,999 |
Samsung Galaxy S10 | R17,699 |
Samsung Galaxy S10+ | R18,499 |
Pricing was taken from Technomobi at the time of writing.
Hardware
Huawei’s pricing is only one half of the value-for-money equation, however.
The other is the high-end hardware packed into its smartphones and their sleek design and solid build quality.
The P30 Pro, for example, is ranked first by DxOMark for its camera.
Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 980 processor is also the world’s first commercial SoC manufactured using TSMC’s 7nm process.
The Kirin 980 packs 6.9 billion transistors, delivering 20% more performance and 40% more power efficiency compared to chips which use the 10nm manufacturing process.
The Neural Processing Unit in the chipset also provides greatly-improved AI performance.
Additionally, Huawei has aligned itself with the world’s top brands to produce next-generation smartphones.
Leica, a market-leading camera company, works with Huawei to ensure its mobile photography stands out, while Porsche partnered with Huawei to launch the Mate RS Porsche Design – its “most luxurious” smartphone to date.
This combination of good pricing and powerful devices has made Huawei a formidable player in the smartphone market.
This is an opinion piece.
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