It has been three years since Huawei was included in the US Entity List which resulted in them no longer being able to access the latest technology as well as GMS which is much needed for the Android market outside of China. When trade barriers are imposed, Huawei is getting closer to overtaking Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone maker.
In an interview reported on IT Home, Huawei’s chief executive officer of mobile devices was quoted as saying that the world of smartphones now would have been different if they hadn’t been restricted. According to Yu, the global smartphone market will be dominated by Huawei and Apple. Other manufacturers include from South Korea which means Samsung will only market their devices in the U.S. and South Korea only.
His opinion is a little surprising because it seems to belittle the ability of Samsung which is still the world's number one smartphone maker throughout 2021.
There is no denying that Huawei is indeed on track to overtake Samsung in 2018 before sanctions are imposed. But to say Samsung won’t be the world’s two largest smartphone makers is probably inaccurate as they have their own strengths on camera technology, hardware and more importantly the longest running Android software support - up to 4 versions of Android - compared to other manufacturers.
We can only speculate what would have happened if Huawei had not entered the list of entities. But since Huawei is no longer a superpower, the vacuum left is filled by Xiaomi which is soaring up its sales. With Leica’s recent collaboration, it’s very likely that Xiaomi will eventually overtake Samsung instead of Huawei.