Huawei was able to hang onto its spot as the world’s second-biggest smartphone vendor in the first quarter, before the U.S blacklisted the company, as reported by Reuters.
The ranking comes from a report obtained by Reuters from Gartner, a research and advisory firm in the United States. The firm said Huawei was able to continue to decrease the gap with Samsung. However, this growth could be limited in the next quarter.
On May 15th, the U.S. blocked Huawei from purchasing U.S. goods, stating that the company was involved in activities against national security.
The U.S. ban will surely impact future sales, according to Gartner.
“Unavailability of Google apps and services on Huawei smartphones, if implemented, will upset Huawei’s international smartphone business which is almost half of its worldwide phone business,” Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner told Reuters.
Huawei sold 58.4 million phones in the first quarter and showed growth in all regions. The company did especially well in Europe and China, where sales increased by 69 percent and 33 percent.
Huawei has faced numerous setbacks following the U.S. ban, including Google recently suspending the company’s Android license, the SD Association banning it, its restriction by the Wi-Fi Alliance and its loss of business with chip designer ARM.
Source: Reuters
