HUAWEI takes hit in Europe during Q2 2019, but how bad is it?

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has already confirmed HUAWEI smartphone sales were down by at least 40 million units following the U.S. trade ban against it. Now, a new report by insights firm Kantar has shed more light on HUAWEI’s market share in the wake of the ban.

According to Kantar’s Q2 2019 OS report, which we received via email, HUAWEI finished the quarter with higher market-share in five major European Union countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain) compared to Q2 2018. That sounds like good news, until we delve a little deeper.

“Quarter on Quarter HUAWEI share is down -1.9%pts in EU5 and most tellingly, June vs. May 2019 share, is down -9.0%pts (sic),” Kantar Consumer Insights Director Dominic Sunnebo was quoted as saying in an emailed press release. The HUAWEI trade ban took place in mid-May, which would explain the massive drop-off between the two months. This suggests HUAWEI might be in for another slide in the region if the trade ban isn’t adequately resolved or if consumer confidence is dented.

Sunnebo also noted that Samsung and Xiaomi were two of the key beneficiaries of HUAWEI’s misfortune, with Apple also seeing a smaller increase in sales. There also seems to be a trend of sorts for some HUAWEI owners to hold off on upgrading at all, Kantar says, with these owners likely waiting out the situation.

“If this continues to be the case and the dispute is resolved it might mean that the majority of sales are delayed rather than lost to competitors, but the speed at which a resolution is found will determine this,” the analyst said.

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