Despite the US ban, Huawei aims to double smartphone sales by next year. The Chinese company has been stockpiling components for months, preparing for an aggressive push into the market. The goal is to ship between 60 and 70 million phones by 2024. This would represent a doubling of shipments compared to the current and previous years.
Huawei aims to double smartphone sales
To achieve this goal, Huawei has adopted several strategies. First, as Nikkei Asia reports, it has expanded its own inventory of key components, including lenses, cameras, circuit boards and other key parts. Furthermore, Huawei has entered into a strategic partnership with Qualcomm, the only US supplier of 4G mobile chips. The Chinese firm has asked Qualcomm to ship its entire 4G mobile chip order for the year by Junepreventing potential future export restrictions imposed by the United States.
These efforts reflect Huawei’s desire to overcome the trade restrictions imposed by the United States since 2019. Despite such challenges, the company has collaborated with China’s leading chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC), to produce 5G mobile chipsets and other advanced chips at its Shanghai factory. These chips are based on 7 nanometer and 14 nanometer manufacturing technologies.
Huawei’s recovery
China has become the world’s largest buyer of chip manufacturing equipment as of 2020. And it is consistently one of the top three global markets for chip equipment since 2016. Meanwhile, China’s imports of chip equipment from Japan, the Netherlands and the United States have reached significant figures, exceeding $9.24 billion in the first eight months of 2023 and more than $11.4 billion in 2022, according to Chinese customs data.
The American ban hit Huawei hard. From 240.6 million units sold in 2019, it rose to 30.5 last year. But some of the new smartphones (like the P60 Pro we tested this summer) are succeeding. And Huawei aims to double sales by next year – and perhaps continue to grow after that.