HUAWEI OVERTAKES SAMSUNG AS TOP SMARTPHONE SELLER

China's Huawei has overtaken Samsung to become the number-one smartphone seller worldwide in the second quarter, industry tracker Canalys said Thursday. Canalys said the embattled firm, which is facing U.S. sanctions, shipped 55.8 million devices -- overtaking Samsung for the first time, which shifted 53.7 million units.

The research group said the US sanctions had "stifled" Huawei's business outside mainland China, but that it had grown to dominate its substantial domestic market. More than 70 percent of its smartphones are now sold in the country, Canalys said, where Samsung has a very small share of the market, Wang Zhao reported for the Agence France Presse (AFP) on July 31, 2020. Huawei said in a statement it was a sign of "exceptional resilience."

Overseas shipments, however, fell nearly a third in the second quarter and Canalys analyst Mo Jia warned that strength in China alone "will not be enough to sustain Huawei at the top once the global economy starts to recover." Mo added: "Its major channel partners in key regions, such as Europe, are increasingly wary of ranging Huawei devices, taking on fewer models, and bringing in new brands to reduce risk."

Huawei -- the top producer of telecoms networking equipment -- has become a pivotal issue in the geopolitical standoff between Beijing and Washington, which claims the firm poses a significant cybersecurity threat. Washington has essentially barred Huawei from the US market and waged a global campaign to isolate the company.