Even without support for Google’s apps and mobile services on its smartphones, Huawei has continued to be a dominant player in the South African mid-range smartphone market and is making significant in-roads into other product segments.
That is according to former Huawei South Africa consumer business CTO Akhram Mohamed, who recently moved to head of cybersecurity and privacy at the company.
Huawei has been diversifying its product range outside smartphones and tablets to include laptops, audio devices, wearables, and monitors — devices that don’t rely on Google Mobile Services (GMS).
Some have speculated that this was necessitated by a drop in smartphone sales after a US ban cut Huawei off from Google apps and GMS. But Mohamed told MyBroadband that 2021 has been “extremely encouraging” for Huawei, with even smartphone sales beating its expectations.
“Perhaps we cut ourselves short a little bit because, unlike Europe and some of the other territories, South Africa has been absolutely phenomenal,” Mohamed said. When it comes to our smartphone business in general, it’s been very resilient,” he stated.
“If you are looking at the value market, which is what Huawei always competed on, then certainly we are doing well.” Another area in which Huawei has had huge success is its PC business.
Mohamed said Huawei’s PC shipments surged 350% in South Africa, resulting in a revenue increase of 400% in this segment.
He said that this was evidence that despite geopolitics and certain technology restrictions limiting Huawei, the Huawei brand was trusted in the country and had loyal South African followers.
The company first introduced its Huawei MateBook laptop line-up to the country in 2020. It now includes the premium MateBook X Pro, affordable MateBook D series, and business-focused MateBook B range.
Source: mybroadband
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