Early 5G smartphone market all about Samsung and Huawei

Research firm Strategy Analytics has been looking at last year’s 5G smartphone shipments and found most of them were accounted for by just two vendors.

SA says there was more demand for 5G smartphones than it expected. It looks like operators jumped on the future-proofing bandwagon, even though any 5G devices they sold would probably only get a 5G connection in their own HQ, and even then only if you were actually sat on a base station. As a consequence SA says around 19 million 5G phones were shipped, with almost three quarters of those made by Samsung or Huawei.

“Global 5G smartphone shipments grew from zero in 2018 to 18.7 million units in 2019,” said Ken Hyers of SA. “Demand for 5G smartphones is higher than many expected. Fierce vendor competition in China and heavy carrier subsidies across South Korea have been the main drivers of 5G demand. Other regions, like the US and Europe, are lagging behind Asia, but we expect them to close the gap later this year.”

“Almost all Huawei’s 5G smartphones were shipped in China, where US sanctions have made relatively less impact,” said Ville-Petteri Ukonaho of SA. “Popular 5G models for Huawei include the Mate 20 X 5G and Mate 30 Pro 5G. Samsung is number two and shipped 6.7 million 5G smartphones worldwide during 2019, capturing a healthy 36 percent marketshare. Samsung’s 5G smartphone shipments are international and span a wide spread of countries, from South Korea to the UK to the United States. Popular 5G models for Samsung include the Note 10 5G and S10 5G.”

“Upcoming 5G models from Apple iPhone and other big brands mean 5G will be the hottest part of the worldwide smartphone market this year,” said Neil Mawston of SA. “However, the recent coronavirus scare is currently restricting trade in some parts of China and this may well cause a slowdown in 5G supply or demand across Asia or worldwide during the first half of 2020. Industry players should be prepared for bumpy 5G sales in some markets.”

A couple more of them piped up too, but we figure you got the message. The presumed launch of 5G iPhones will definitely take 5G hype into the mainstream and will also put pressure on operators to deliver a network and service that offers something more than 4G. These numbers largely follow the broader smartphone market, given Apple’s early absence thanks to its feeble efforts to strong-arm Qualcomm. It is interesting to see how much of a jump Huawei seems to have got in the Chinese market, however.