This photo taken on Aug. 7, 2020, shows Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy smartphones displayed at a store in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co. was the world’s top smartphone vendor in August, a report showed Tuesday, as it widens the gap with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. amid the pandemic.
The South Korean tech giant accounted for a 22 percent share of the global smartphone market last month, beating Huawei with a 16 percent share, according to industry tracker Counterpoint Research.
The gap of 6 percentage points between the two sides is the largest since February, when China’s smartphone market was severely hit by COVID-19 lockdowns, the market researcher said.
Samsung lost its top smartphone vendor status to Huawei in April, but it recaptured the position later, following a recovery in the Indian smartphone market.
Samsung has been expanding its presence in India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market, helped by growing anti-China sentiment in the South Asian nation following a border clash between Beijing and New Delhi.
U.S. tech juggernaut Apple Inc. took the third spot with a 12 percent share, followed by China’s Xiaomi Corp. with an 11 percent share, according to Counterpoint Research.
Counterpoint Research said the U.S. sanctions against Huawei — which ban the supply of semiconductors made with U.S. equipment, software and design to the Chinese firm without prior approval from Washington — could shake up the global smartphone market and give a good opportunity to other brands.
“For Samsung, it will be a good opportunity to raise its smartphone market share, especially in Europe, where the company has been competing fiercely with Huawei in various price bands,” Kang Min-soo, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, said.
(Yonhap)
