Last week, Chinese consumers flocked to Huawei stores to buy the Mate 60 Pro. The device costs 6,999 yuan and uses a domestically produced chip, raising hopes that Huawei could reach the top once again.
Despite its popularity with domestic customers, analysts say the Mate 60 Pro's appeal in the international market is limited due to the lack of popular apps like Google's. Huawei is only taking pre-orders in China, with no information about an overseas release.
Linda Sui, senior smartphone analyst at research firm TechInsights, predicts that Huawei's strong comeback will have a major impact on the country's mobile market in the second half of 2023 and all of 2024. She added that while Huawei could disrupt the list of China's top five smartphone brands, it is not a threat to Apple because it targets a different customer base.
According to data from IDC and Counterpoint, Chinese smartphone sales will fall to 286 million units in 2022, with Huawei ranking 6th with a market share of 7.9%, behind Vivo, Apple, Oppo, Honor and Xiaomi. This is a big change from the company's heyday, when it led the domestic market for 4 consecutive years from 2017 to 2020.
After being banned from purchasing advanced semiconductors in September 2020, Huawei – which once competed “on par” with Apple globally – saw its consumer business revenue plummet in 2021. In 2022, the segment continued to decline 11.9% year-on-year to 214.5 billion yuan ($29.35 billion).
To cope with the embargo, Huawei had to split its budget phone brand Honor, and its large distribution network also shrank. In the past two years, the “giant” has not been in the list of top 5 Chinese smartphones. That is why some analysts see the Mate 60 Pro as a potential savior for the company, as sales have skyrocketed both in traditional channels and online.
Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint, pointed out that the new model could help Huawei re-enter the top five smartphone brands in China in the fourth quarter of 2023, although it will not be able to “climb the top”. Sales of the Mate 60 series in the first four months of its release are expected to reach 4 million units, according to Counterpoint research. Lam noted that Huawei has lost some of its traditional sales channels over the years, affecting its reach in third- and fourth-tier cities.
Meanwhile, TechInsights estimates Mate 60 sales to exceed 6 million units by the end of 2023. TF International analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicts Huawei will sell at least 12 million Mate 60 Pros in the first 12 months, up from 2.5 million Mate 50 Pro sales in 2022. However, it is still far behind the potential sales of the iPhone 15 (90 million units).
Canalys analyst Toby Zhu said the new Mate will impact sales of Apple and other competitors in the segment. However, Huawei will only represent 12% to 14% of the total 280 million devices sold in China in 2023.
(According to SCMP)
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