Strategy Analytics has predicted worldwide 5G smartphone sales of 160 million in 2020, provided China embraces the technology as forecast.
The analyst firm’s associate director Ville Petteri-Ukonaho said that China “holds the key to 5G volumes in 2020”, and noted that whichever vendor takes the largest portion of the 5G smartphone market “will have huge leverage for driving down the learning curve of 5G devices”.
While currently Samsung leads the 5G device market globally, its share of China’s market is just 1%. Strategy Analytics notes that this means Huawei is well positioned to lead the Chinese 5G smartphone market, as China has the potential to account for as much as half of the global sales total next year.
The analyst noted that if Huawei capitalises on its strength in China, it stands to “regain its global smartphone standing”, with SVP David Kerr adding “Huawei has recently accelerated and intensified its efforts in its home market to counter international uncertainty.”
“By Q2 2019, it had expanded its smartphone market share there to almost 40%, far outpacing all other competitors”, he noted. “If China meets its aggressive targets, Huawei could cut deeply into Samsung’s 5G leadership, positioning it for recovery and growth in Western Europe and other global markets.”
