HUAWEI shows staggering growth in Europe -- But will it last?

According to the latest smartphone industry results from Counterpoint Research, HUAWEI’s growth in the European market in the first quarter of 2019 is staggering.

In the whole of Europe, Huawei increased its market share by 11 percent from Q1 2018 to Q1 2019. In Eastern Europe specifically, HUAWEI managed to increase its market share by a whopping 18 percent during the same period.

For the sake of comparison, Samsung increased its European market share by just one percent through Q1 2019 and both Apple and Xiaomi actually lost market share. The European smartphone market as a whole decreased by three percent over the past year.

These results paint a clear picture: HUAWEI is growing in Europe at a staggering pace, regardless of the competition or the market in general.

However, will that growth face a sudden slowdown due to the recent news surrounding the United States banning business with HUAWEI? These results from Counterpoint are coming to light now, but the data is all from before the HUAWEI ban took effect.

With major hardware suppliers — including Qualcomm and Arm — pulling out of business with HUAWEI and Google pulling support for Android and Google services, HUAWEI has an uphill battle ahead to stay afloat. Additionally, this HUAWEI ban is terrible for PR and could result in fewer smartphone sales even if HUAWEI is able to get the U.S. to retract the ban.

For the full results surrounding Counterpoint’s smartphone market research, click here.

NEXT: Here’s why losing Arm is a far bigger deal for HUAWEI than losing Google