The company experienced a significant decline in its main line of business, smartphones, as a result of the various sanctions placed on Huawei. Currently, a Xiaomi executive has revealed which brands benefited from this situation.
The President of the Xiaomi Group, Lu Weibing, claims that the sanctions caused the Chinese tech giant to lose about 80 million of its customers.
Huawei Quickly Falls From 2nd Largest Smartphone Maker
For those who are unaware, Huawei lost access to its suppliers that it used to obtain US-based technology from and was cut off from its main chip supplier, TSMC, which produced its proprietary Kirin SoCs. This means that the company’s smartphone division was essentially crippled, which played an important role in its downfall.
After the US imposed these sanctions, the company quickly declined from being the second-largest smartphone OEM in the world. A senior Xiaomi official claimed that 50 million of Huawei’s 80 million lost customers switched to Xiaomi.
The company, which makes iPhones, had nonetheless lost 20 million of its customers to Apple, and the remaining 10 million were acquired by its former subsidiary, Honor.
Another indication of how successful Huawei was in the Chinese market is provided by the fact that other companies scrambled to fill the enormous void left by its absence.
Competitors quickly seized their market share, with the majority of them experiencing significant growth in recent years. The overall smartphone market is still shrinking despite a number of supply chain and economic issues.
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Huawei Mate X3
However, smartphone manufacturers anticipate releasing updated models of their foldable smartphones this year due to the intensifying competition in the segment. One of these is the Huawei Mate X3, which is anticipated to launch this year and bring upgrades to the Mate X line’s specifications and features.
Regarding the Mate X3 release date, Huawei has not made any official announcements. However, a few websites, including Huawei Central, assert that the foldable phone may debut in 2023. According to a Weibo leak, the phone would be released before the P60 series.
Given that the Huawei Mate X2 was only released for the Chinese market at the time of its debut in February 2021, this rumor is plausible. In May 2022, the Huawei Mate Xs 2 was subsequently released for international markets.
Of course, it’s unlikely that the Huawei Mate X3 will be sold in the US. Since a recent Politico article claims that Huawei is about to give up on other markets and concentrate on Asia, its availability in Europe is still in doubt.
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