Huawei maintained strong momentum in Q1 2019. Its smartphone shipments soared +50% YoY and the smartphone wholesale revenue surged +55% YoY. The vendor’s product lift-up strategy has started to pay dividends, indicated by the improved smartphone ASP and operating profit margin.

China remained as Huawei’s largest growth engine, while its overseas markets also posted strong performance. With robust growth in all major regions, Huawei solidified the second position in global smartphone markets, closing up distance with Samsung.

Product-wise, Huawei introduced Mate X - its first foldable 5G smartphone - in February 2019. It also hard launched P30 series – its latest flagship models - in March / April. Mate X represents the vendor’s future-oriented innovation on form-factor and 5G, while P30 series showcase its unrivalled leadership in camera and image function. We expect Mate X’s volume will remain tiny in 2019, given its extremely high price tag, low yield rate, and the premature 5G networks. We are optimistic about P30 series and expect it will be Huawei’s hero product this year.

Other than eye-catching new products, Huawei laid out its new multiple screen ecosystem strategy recently, in which smartphone remains the control hub. If executing well, the strategy will help Huawei to build up long-term competitive advantage to secure the success in 5G era.

Our latest report Q1’19: Huawei: Volume and Value Soared was published. WSS clients could access the report via this link.