Honor's fortunes improved after leaving Huawei, which was evident from its position in China in Q3 2021 which overtook Apple and Xiaomi.
According to Canalys, Honor is now the phone maker with the 3rd largest market share in China, behind Vivo and Oppo. They ship 25% more phones than before leaving Huawei.
Honor's position is higher than Apple and Xiaomi who are in the 4th and 5th positions. Honor's market share in Q3 2021 is 18%, while Xiaomi's is 14%, and Apple's is 11%.
But the biggest growth was actually achieved by Apple, whose iPhone shipments rose from 5.1 million units to 8.3 million units, or up 62%. Honor's own shipments increased 25%, from 11.3 million units to 14.2 million units.
The growth experienced by Apple was helped by the newly released iPhone 13 line. 1 in 9 phones sold in China between June and September was an iPhone.
Overall, the mobile phone market in China is in decline. Manufacturers outside the top 5 saw a more than half decrease in shipments compared to the same period the previous year. The total number of mobile phone sales was 78.8 million units, down 5% compared to Q3 2020.
Going forward, Canalys predicts that the mobile phone market in China will not improve. The main problem is the scarcity of chips as well as supply chain problems of other components.
So according to Canalys, it will be very difficult to increase sales volume and income, from a market that is already very dense.
However, the fate of Honor in the United States is currently unclear, as the US government is considering whether to treat Honor like Huawei, which is to be blacklisted.
If Honor is included in the entity list, then the fate will be the same as Huawei. That is not being able to do business with US companies and also not being able to use various technologies originating from the US.
Pressure to give Honor the same treatment also came from the Republican Party, who pressured the Joe Biden Administration to continue to contain China's growth as a competitive threat in the technology industry.
Even a member of the Republican Party, Michael McCaul wrote to the Minister of Commerce Gina Raimondo asking Honor to be included in the entity list, because it is considered as Huawei's way to get around the various sanctions imposed on the Chinese giant.
