2021 might be a very bad year for Huawei, but maybe not for Oppo
Back in the day, Chinese handset makers like Huawei had a reputation for creating cheap/affordable Android phones that weren’t anything to shout at, but its price was appealing to those who did not want to spend too much money on a smartphone. Huawei did play the long game and it paid off where the company overtook the likes of Apple and Samsung to take the number one spot as the world’s large smartphone maker.
All of that is expected to change in 2021, at least that’s what a report from DigiTimes is suggesting. Based on their research, the publication seems to have a very pessimistic outlook for Huawei where they believe that due to the US sanctions against the company, Huawei could slip from first place all the way down to seventh place.
This in turn would allow other companies to take its place, where it is believed that it could be a toss-up between Samsung or Apple, and more interestingly, Oppo could actually slide into third.
While one could argue that Huawei still holds a lot of appeal in non-US markets, the sanctions means that Huawei will be forced to continue using non-Google services for their phones. Given that part of the draw of Android is Google’s services, we imagine that there will be more than a few customers who might consider other Chinese smartphone brands instead.
It remains to be seen if these predictions will come true, but what do you think? Does Huawei still have enough clout to hold onto the number one position?
Source: DigiTimes