Will more retail stores help Xiaomi compete with Huawei in China?
Amid the China-US tech war, Chinese smartphone makers are shifting their focus back to their home market
Competition among Chinese smartphone makers is getting more intense. After rapid expansion overseas, both Xiaomi and Huawei are now once again turning their attention back home.
How Xiaomi forged a unique path
However, the path to success in China’s saturated smartphone market is getting ever narrower. By the first quarter of the year, the top five smartphone vendors in China controlled 89% of the market, up from 83 percent a year prior, said Mo Jia, and analyst with research firm Canalys. Within the same time period, Xiaomi’s market share even declined slightly -- from 13% to 12% -- while competitors Oppo and Vivo maintained their shares of 19% and 17% respectively.
The company’s largest competitor now has a renewed focus on China, as well.
Huawei is looking to grab as much as half of China’s smartphone market as it braces for declining shipments overseas. Since being blacklisted from buying US technology by the Trump Administration and getting cut off from Google services, the prospect of expanding its global smartphone business has evaporated.
“Huawei is consolidating is arsenal on its home market, which will crank up the pressure dramatically for other vendors there this year,” said Bryan Ma, vice president of client devices at technology research firm IDC.
