Huawei Overtakes Samsung as World's Biggest Smartphone Vendor

For the first time ever, Huawei has shipped more smartphones worldwide over a quarter than any other company, according to a new report from analyst firm Canalys. From a report: Huawei has long harbored ambitions to overtake Samsung as the world's biggest smartphone seller, and going by the numbers from Canalys, that's just what happened during the April-June period this year. That doesn't mean Huawei will hold onto the top spot for long, as the results were clearly influenced by the ongoing pandemic. Canalys' figure of 55.8 million Huawei smartphones shipped is actually down 5 percent year-on-year, while Samsung slid 30 percent to 53.7 million. More than 70 percent of Huawei's devices are now sold in China, which hasn't been hit as hard by COVID-19 as many of Samsung's major markets. Samsung, meanwhile, is a tiny player in China. "Our business has demonstrated exceptional resilience in these difficult times," Huawei said in a statement to The Verge. "Amidst a period of unprecedented global economic slowdown and challenges, we've continued to grow and further our leadership position by providing innovative products and experience to consumers."

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[dmay34]

Off topic.... But damn.

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[LifesABeach]

other flaws that herman had was that he used windows.
rest in peace.
shucky ducky

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[dmay34]

I don't take joy in anyone's death.

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[nospam007]

"Dies after not wearing mask at Trump rally in Arizona"

Can't be true. The Republican Party forbade all its members to die from Covid.

nows samsungs chance to do something different

[FudRucker]

like offering their phones as an open platform, so owners can either use the stock android that comes with the phone or download & install alternative firmware like a clean bare-bones android or lineageOS, offer customers something that no other smartphone maker does which would be a first

Re: nows samsungs chance to do something different

[guacamole]

This of course will make Samsung a sales leader again.

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[timeOday]

Just what people want, more complexity and difficulty fixing problems.

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[AmiMoJo]

Huawei is really eating into Samsung's market. The Mate 20 X is a fantastic phone, ticks all the boxes like accepting memory cards, dual SIMs, headphone jack etc. and it's cheap.

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[Anonymous Coward]

And comes with free monitoring by the PLA

Re: nows samsungs chance to do something different

[BAReFO0t]

Frankly, all the China phones' only problem is their origin. Even small vendors can carve out their small target group and hit it out of the park there, simply because there is a vendor for everyone.

E.g. By Blackview BV6000 had the best build quality of any phone I ever had. I assumed it was low-end, until I got a Samsung and a Huawei, and while thosenhad better cameras and a larger screen, and maybe (not that I could ever tell) a better CPU, the BV6000 beat them at every other detail. Including being water

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[FudRucker]

make the phone so if a firmware fails it has a fallback default firmware partition that will take over and boot a bare-bones android with google-playstore so it can be recovered,

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[UnknowingFool]

So a phone with 2 firmwares? I think the OP’s point is that this is not a technical obstacle. It is a practical limitation as very few consumers want this. And this would cost more to implement which is another reason as fewer consumers are willing to pay more for a feature they didn’t want.

Re: nows samsungs chance to do something different

[BAReFO0t]

My.cheapest low-end Gigabyte MB from 2010 had two bioses. (Literally two separatr chips)

I think they can manage a backup firmware.

Hell, Mediatek SoCs have it built in. You can literally flash a broken bootloader while it is off and would otherwise be considered completely and utterly bricked.
Huge security risk, yes. But then, if somebody got that much phyical access, it's already too late anyway. Plus, it would be easy to secure. Have the chip store a key in a EEPROM register that the USB connection needs t

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[UnknowingFool]

Again, it is not a matter of technical impossibility. It is a matter of cost. With a smartphone, a larger limitation is on space. Yes you may have paid less one time for a computer MB with 2 BIOSes. So what. Add to that few consumers want it.

Phone manufacturer: "This new model has the ability to load your own firmware and is protected with 2 BIOSes. Are you interested?"
Average consumer: "Meh"
Manufacturer: "By the way, this will cost more."
Average consumer: "Then, no"

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[drinkypoo]

All bollocks. There are already phones for which there are multi-boot-loaders, and enough flash to make constructive use of them. The only difference between the proposal and the current state of the market is that you have to go to XDA-Devs to get software like this, nobody is shipping it on their devices.

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[UnknowingFool]

What part of "this isn’t a technical impossibility. This is a matter of cost" is unclear? Stating that there are phones that do this is besides the point. Also the other point which you’ve missed is the average consumer doesn’t really want this. If a feature that they didn’t want makes a phone cost more they want to buy that phone even less.

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[drinkypoo]

The cost is negligible. In fact, it's nearly zero if they just provide developer support in the form of documentation which they already have internally. Then someone else will do it for them.

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[ChunderDownunder]

If anyone wants an 'Open' phone buy a Librem 5 or a Pinephone.

Android OEMs don't care about a few thousand people who wish to run Replicant or postmarketOS, consequently they do the bare minimum in terms of their GPL obligations.

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[UnknowingFool]

You do understand the OP asked for multiple firmware not multiple OS. That requires additional cost.

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[FudRucker]

yup, it can be done easily, and affordably, i think there are some people on here that dont want anyone to have GNU/FreeSoftware because they want to sell everyone a copy of their proprietary software at exorbitant pricing

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[UnknowingFool]

The bottom line isn’t that it can be affordably done. The point is a phone without this feature would cost less. Between a feature that they don’t care about and may be complicated but cost slightly more or a phone without this feature and costs less, the average consumer will choose cheaper. You see this in features like cameras. Consumers will gladly pass less if they don’t get the best and latest cameras. And better cameras is something most consumers can understand. A bios backup so th

Samsung's software is so bloated

[stooo]

Yes. Samsung's software is so bloated, you don't want to buy any of their phones.

So, 55.8M factory malware platforms?

[Rick Schumann]

Just sayin'.

Re: So, 55.8M factory malware platforms?

[BAReFO0t]

Totally unlike every piece of Intel or Cisco or Motorola or Google or Microsoft or ... equipment.

At least the Chinese aren't the massas of my particular vassal state ...

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[Rick Schumann]

Some American companies have done bad things, so you can't complain about Chinese companies also doing the same bad things!

Bad is bad. Why are you being a Chinese Government apologist? Are you a foreign national? Paid China shill? Regardless: fuck you.

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[Rick Schumann]

Chinese Government shills be damned. You know I'm right. Stop misusing your mod points you assholes.

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[majorme]

I do not think misused mine when I modded your first post as flame bait. Unless you're out there consistently singling out every smart phone on the market , you're full of shit. Calling people Chinese apologists lol

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[Rick Schumann]

If you 'used a mod point' as you say, IN THIS DISCUSSION, yet you're now posting IN THE SAME DISCUSSION as a logged-in user? Then you have multiple accounts you use to farm mod points to use to attack people with. YOU are the troll, then. Fuck off.

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[majorme]

No, I used my mod point prior to commenting. I just thought that you deserve an explanation. Not sure why you see me as devil incarnate or a troll. Maybe consider the fact that not everyone on this site is an American. In my contest, you're are the troll.

The torch passes further eastward

[timeOday]

From Motorola, to Blackberry, to Ericson, to Apple, to Samsung, to Huawei, it's kind of impressive how many companies have taken their turn in the lead. But the overall movement has clearly been towards China, and I don't see where it would migrate from there any time soon.

Re: The torch passes further eastward

[BAReFO0t]

Only an American (no offense) could leave out Nokia.

The creator of the first smartphones. The first smartphone with a camera and 3G too. And the first one with a freakin file manager, the first one with freely installable apps, the first one with a dedicated copy/paste button, the first one with a real keyboard built in, and the first one with 3D graphics and 3D audio.

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[timeOday]

Mea culpa. I think I sort of rolled up Nokia with Ericsson in my mind, oops.

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[Tablizer]

They cheat by having de-facto slave labor and disincentivizing local consumption over exports. Their large migrant worker population are treated like second-class citizens.

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[timeOday]

No argument there. markets are ruthless.

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[Tablizer]

The migrant workers are often left out of markets. Many are not allowed to move closer to work because the gov't doesn't want crowded cities.

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[Tablizer]

So they all take a train to their rural shack instead and see their families once every 4 months

Eat you heart out, Trump fascists!

[BAReFO0t]

Oh wait, you don't have any!
. . .
You do? In the fridge?

(Let's see if Trump fans are too triggered to mod this funny. ;)