Huawei chases enterprise clients in South Korea as consumers hold onto Samsung, Apple smartphones
- Huawei is unlikely to gain ground in the South Korean smartphone market, which is dominated by Samsung and Apple, analysts say
- The Chinese firm’s new cloud division in the country is eyeing business from the local tech and entertainment industries
This article was first published by The Korea Times in a partnership with the South China Morning Post.
Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies is poised to make a comeback in the global smartphone market this year, but in South Korea, the company must contend with the lingering impact of US sanctions and intense competition with international and local rivals, according to industry watchers.
Huawei is forecast to move into the spotlight in the smartphone industry in 2024, with projected double-digit growth in global shipments, according to a report published last week by research firm TechInsights, which described the Chinese company as a potential “big surprise”.
But in Korea – home to smartphone and semiconductor titan Samsung Electronics – Huawei is struggling to expand its market share or secure trust from local partners amid the US-China tech rivalry, analysts said.
The Shenzhen-based company, which has been offering various products and services to Korean customers for two decades, has been effectively absent from the country’s smartphone market in the past few years due to its “inability to source 5G chipsets”, said Abhilash Kumar, an analyst at TechInsights.
“South Korea’s smartphone market is 5G-heavy, with a 5G penetration of more than 95 per cent for 2023, so it made little sense for consumers to buy Huawei’s 4G-powered phones,” he said.