BEIJING, October 25 (TMTPost)— Huawei Technologies Ltd’s latest flagship smartphone could triggered much more appetite among Chinese customers than research firm’s expectation.

Credit：Visual China

Huawei has sold 1.6 million Mate 60 Pro handsets in six weeks despite slowdown in the smartphone market, Counterpoint Research said last Friday. The global market research firm in the TMT industry added that more than 400,000 units out of the aforementioned sales were sold in the past two weeks, when Apple launched its latest mobile iPhone 15 on mainland China.

Counterpoint Research’s estimates are basically in line with the facts based on the current offline survey, Chinese news media outlet Jiemian cited a person familiar with Huawei’s sales channel. Sales of 1.6 million for a mobile model since its launch within six weeks can be deemed as the top performance in the industry given the lackluster overall market, the person commented. Mate 60 Pro could have been achieved sales of more than 1.6 million units if supply can meet the demand since the premium version of Mate 60 is out of stock, the person expected.   

Prior to these estimates, Huawei’s Mate 60 series has generated buzz among Chinese customers since the company surprisingly launched a presale for Mate 60 Pro priced at RMB6,999 (US$960) on August 29. Even though Huawei didn’t officially released the model, the low-profile presale turned out such a success that the first batch of the phone sold out within hours, igniting fervor for Huawei’s 5G comeback in China. While Huawei didn’t confirm whether the phone supports the 5G network, Chinese media outlets said online tests proved Mate 60 Pro can deliver the internet speed of 5G. Multiple reports attributed Mate 60’s 5G connectivity to Kirin 9000s chipset.

Huawei was reported in September to raise shipment target in the second half of the year for Mate 60 by 20% as sales of the flagship were stronger than the company’s expectation, and could deliver at least 40 million units of new smartphone this year. Recent Chinese reports said Huawei aims to sell much more smartphones next year.

Huawei raised the delivery target for 2024 to a range of 60 million to 70 million units, more than doubling its annual delivery of 30 million units in 2022, Chinese state-backed newspaper Securities Daily cited people close to the company earlier this month. The new target is same as Jiemian the same month. The Chinese digital news media outlet said Huawei set an annual smartphone delivery target between 60 million units and 70 million units for the year 2024. The Shenzhen-based company has placed enough additional orders to its suppliers to ensure it meet the target, the report’s sources said.

The delivery volume of 60 million units is roughly in line with the expectation of Ming Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities who was well known as the most accurate Apple analyst in the world. Kuo anticipated a month earlier that Huawei’s mobile delivery in 2023 will increase about 65% from last year to 38 million units, driven by demand for Mate 60 Plus, and its delivery in 2024 is expected to be no less than 60 million.

Reports last week suggested Huawei has dethroned Apple from its position as the best-selling smartphone in China due to Mate 60 series’ sales boom.  In the week ended October 8, or the 40th week of the year, Huawei took the first place with a 19.4% of market share by sales in China, according to BCI, a Chinese consulting firm focusing on research in the communications industry. The performance showcased Huawei has made great strides since inception of Mate 60 series. The tech giant’s recent market share rose almost 10 percentage points from the week prior to new flagship’s launch.

Sales of iPhone 15 in China are 4.5% lower than the iPhone 14 over their first 17 days after release, Counterpoint Research estimated. Smartphone sales in China were mainly driven by high double-digit growth in Android sales led by Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor devices, while Apple’s iPhone sales recorded a negative YoY growth since the iPhone 15 launched, resulting in Huawei’s dethroning as the market leader in China, Jefferies analysts said at a report on October 16.

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