Chinese smartphone giant Huawei Technologies has sold 1.6 million of its Mate 60 Pro handsets in six weeks, Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint said.
The Chinese technology giant has enjoyed strong demand in its high-end smartphone renaissance, defying a smartphone slowdown that has affected even US smartphone giant Apple.
In its first 17 days, iPhone 15 sales were down 4.5% compared to the iPhone 14, Counterpoint said, without providing specific figures.
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Meanwhile, of Huawei’s total sales in the six-week period, more than 400,000 units were sold in the last two weeks — the period in which Apple launched the iPhone 15 on the mainland, Counterpoint Research said.
The research firm’s findings follow a report from US investment giant Jefferies that said Huawei had usurped Apple as the smartphone-maker with the biggest share of the Chinese market.
Left debilitated by US technology sanctions in 2019, Huawei made a surprise launch of its premium Mate 60 Pro phone in late August.
Multiple analysts say the phone uses a domestically made chip and marks a breakthrough for the company that said a year ago that its only target was “survival”.
Huawei’s new handset has been in high demand, with available stock swiftly being bought up as soon as it arrives.
That has created “the appearance of perpetual unavailability,” said Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam.
The overall global smartphone market contracted by 8% to its lowest third-quarter level in a decade on subdued demand for major brands.
Huawei, its former unit Honor, and Transsion Group were the only brands to record year-on-year growth in that period.
In China, August smartphone shipments remained largely flat, rising 0.03% year-on-year to 18.99 million handsets, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT).
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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