Huawei Pursues Chinese Smartphone Market Dominance with Rare 18% to 20% Discounts
China’s giant phone maker, Huawei Technologies has announced discounts on several high-end smartphones, watches, headphones, and tablets. The price slash is aimed at boosting sales and expanding Huawei’s smartphone market share amidst fierce competition. According to Reuters, the tech giant cut product prices by up to $411 on one of China’s top e-commerce platforms, JD.com.
High-End Phone Price Cuts
One of the high-end products whose price was slashed is the Pura 70 Ultra launched in April 2024. The latest Huawei price cut shows an 18% discount for Pura 70 Ultra 1 terabyte, from the initial 10,999 yuan to 8,999 yuan. Huawei also announced a 20% discount on Pura 70 Ultra 512 GB by 20% according to its online store, Vmall.
Additionally, Huawei slashed the price of Mate X5 – the foldable smartphone it launched in September 2023. Since its debut, the Mate X5 has been the best selling foldable mobile phone in the Chinese market. For this phone, Huawei announced a 19% discount, from the original 12,999 yuan to 10,499 yuan.
This is not the first time that the company has discounted high-end Huawei phones. In July 2024, the company slashed up to 1,000 yuan from the Pura 70 series devices. The recent price discounts come soon after Huawei unveiled the Mate X6 foldable phone and Mate 70 series in November 2024.
These new products were aimed at expanding Huawei’s market share by capturing a share of the China smartphone market dominated by rivals like Apple and other Chinese companies.
Sales Performance
Data from consultancy firm Canalys showed that in the September 2024 quarter, Huawei’s shipment of premium smartphones increased by 34%. Premium phones are those that have a price tag of $600 and above. The rising demand for premium phones caused Huawei’s domestic market share to hit the 33% mark, a shift that caused the tech giant to close in on Apple.
The American iPhone manufacturer has maintained a 52% market share in the Chinese smartphone market. But the company suffered subdued sales from some phone models. For instance, sales from the new Mate 70 series were not impressive. Analysts from research firm TechInsights attributed the low sales to the fact that Mate 70 phones come with weaker processors than what competitors offer.
Counterpoint Research forecasts that total shipments of these handsets could surpass the 10 million mark throughout the product’s life cycle. Industry experts and analysts continue to monitor Mate 70 series smart phones to understand Huawei’s progress in developing chips. In 2023, the company pulled a surprise when it incorporated a 7-nanometre chip in Mate 60 series smartphones.
Market Positioning
Huawei continues to cement itself as a market leader in foldable smartphones. The Chinese tech giant unveiled Mate XT, the world’s first tri-fold smartphone in September 2024. Combined with Mate X6, the two devices are slowly giving the company an edge in this segment.
Huawei has maintained its position as the best seller of foldable phones in the Chinese market. Data from Counterpoint shows that the tech giant accounts for about 50% of the total domestic foldable smartphone shipments.
Huawei shipped about 1.12 million foldable handsets in quarter 3 of 2024, representing a 97% year-on-year increase. Mate X5 contributed the biggest share of these shipments.
