The world’s largest IT firm domestic chipmaker has topped Qualcomm in China’s smartphone market for the first time in history, supplanting a US market leader, according to a report.
22.21m smartphone processor units shipped in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, Chinese research firm CINNO reported on Wednesday as quoted by the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.
Despite a slight increase in shipments in Q1 a year before, HiSilicon was the only major firm that did not suffer a year-on-year decrease, a report summary on the CINNO’s WeChat account read.
Huawei’s subsidiary market was boosted to 43.9 percent of total global sales, up from 36.5 percent since Q1 2019, beating US rival chipmaker as China’s top smartphone chip supplier.
San Diego-based Qualcomm fell to second place in Q1, declining from 37.8 to 32.8 percent, with Taiwan’s Mediatek remaining at third-place at 13.1 percent.
The news comes after China’s smartphone industry slumped 34.7 percent, or 47.7m units in Q1 2020, due to the pandemic and other factors, figures from the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications technology revealed in April.
Tensions in the US trade war on China increased after the Trump administration place Huawei, ZTE and over 70 Chinese tech firms on an Entity List in May last year, citing national security concerns, which blocked the Chinese telecoms giant from buying and selling with US tech firms, namely chipmakers such as Intel and Qualcomm.
Washington also accused Huawei’s 5G technology of potentially allow Beijing to spy on national carriers, claims that both Huawei and Beijing have repeatedly denied.
In response, Huawei has been increasing production for HiSilicon chips, namely as Washington prepares to launch news rules forcing foreign companies using US technologies to procure licences before supplying Huawei with components, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).
Sourse: sputniknews.com
