Huawei somehow becomes the #1 phone manufacturer, thanks to the coronavirus

Enlarge / Huawei's logo at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona in November 2019. (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images)

Despite aggressive sanctions from the US government, Huawei has become the number 1 smartphone manufacturer in the world, according to Canalys. The company's 55.8 million smartphone shipments in Q2 2020 put it at the top of Canalys' charts for the quarter, marking the first time the company has passed Samsung for the top spot.

Huawei's top spot isn't really due to it defeating US sanctions. Huawei's sales are actually down slightly compared to last year, but in the age of the coronavirus, sales being down only "slightly" is a major win. Huawei sales are down 5 percent from Q2 last year, but Samsung sales have been tanking and are down 30 percent year over year. Samsung's dramatic drop was enough to give Huawei the top spot at 55.8 million, compared to Samsung's 53.7 million.

Canalys shows smartphone sales are down nearly across the board this year, with overall shipments falling 14 percent compared to Q2 2019. The one company with growth is Apple, in the #3 spot, which is up a whopping 25 percent. Canalys credits the new iPhone SE for a lot of that success, saying that "[i]ts new iPhone SE was critical in the quarter, accounting for around 28% of its global volume, while iPhone 11 remained a strong best-seller at nearly 40%."

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