Chinese electronics company Huawei had more than its share of problems over the past year but that didn’t stop it from breaking its own records. It has been revealed that Huawei shipped 200 million phones in the past year which eclipses last year’s efforts of 153 million units.
Some have stated that the reason for Huawei’s success this year can be boiled down to its broad range of smartphone offerings. It’s not only the more expensive flagships like the P20 and Mate 20 phones that are bringing in the bacon for Huawei. While both phones sold well — 16 million and 5 million shipped, respectively — this barely comes close to the whopping total.
Instead, the mid-range devices seem to be where this company has really found its market. These cheaper phones such as Huawei’s Nova series account for more than 65 million of the company’s massive 200 million milestones.
It’s also worth noting that while specific sales statistics weren’t provided, Huawei also credited its budget Honor series offerings with “outstanding performance,” implying that they too would have helped boost the numbers to get this impressive sales figure.
Part of the reason these numbers are particularly impressive is that Huawei has had an interesting past year. The company’s CFO Meng Wanzhou was released on bail by Canada after being arrested for alleged Iran sanction violations. This came at the cost of $10 million CAD; seven were paid in cash and an extra $14 million came in the form of two Vancouver properties.
Huawei has also seen its devices banned in some aspects of the U.S. government. Investigations into several Chinese companies including Huawei led the U.S. Congress to believe that they had failed to explain their ties to the Chinese government. As such, there have been banned placed on many products for data safety concerns.
If these bans continue or spread, then it surely will become a concern for the company but if anything, this has proved for this year is how little Huawei relies on Western markets. Huawei shipped 200 million devices this year even with these troubles. It will be interesting to see if the market has plateaued in the coming years or if the new foldable phone coming next June will succeed.
