Huawei Photo: Deng Zijun/GT

Huawei's Mate 40 series smartphone, unveiled on Friday in China, is in very short supply due to the release of the new product coinciding with China's "Double 11" shopping festival, as well as depleting microchips inventory.

Both Huawei's online sale channels and its physical stores, typically located on busy commercial streets, have sold out of all new models, and some sought-after models are even unable for order within a certain period, according to domestic media reports.

The latest flagship model, characterized by the Kirin 9000 Series chip fully equipped for 5G and powerful Leica-like camera, is expected to hit sales of 400,000 units in a month from JD.com alone, according to a popular online blogger and researcher of digital products with 30,000 fans on Twitter-like Weibo.

According to October's data from JD.com, one of China's e-commerce giants, sales of the new series hit more than 200,000 units in the 10 days following launch on October 22, accounting for the largest market share of smartphones with Android systems, and the third-largest market share of smartphones overall, the blogger said. 

The blogger noted Huawei's counterpart Apple has also seen outstanding sales on JD.com. In October, sales of the iPhone 11 ranked first on JD.com with 880,000 units, with the iPhone 12, launched on October 23, taking the second spot at 310,000 units.

According to a recent report by IDC, Huawei and Apple accounted for 88.1 percent of the Chinese domestic market for high end phones in the first half of 2020. For phones priced at over $600 a unit, Huawei's market share of 44.1 percent slightly overtook Apples' share of 44 percent.

Although it is not clear whether Huawei's market share will be surpassed by Apple in the second half of 2020, for phones priced at over $600, analysts say Huawei is adopting a strategy of controlling the sales of its new series in order to sell its products in an orderly manner due to US government restrictions on supplies to Huawei since September 15.

"The new series has stronger functions, but Huawei can't sell them freely due to limited chip inventories," Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that controlling sales can allow Huawei to sell the new products over a longer period, rather than ending up suddenly out of stock.

"Since the overseas launch of the Huawei Mate 40 on October 22, pre-orders have exceeded supply. Huawei is stepping up production and trying every means necessary to solve the supply problem," Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer division, said on Monday.

"Recently, our sales have begun to fall due to shortages. No matter how difficult the situation is, our business will continue. There will be more and better innovative products available to customers," Yu noted.

As for the supply problems, Xiang points out that the US can't stand to see Huawei become a high-end chip producer worldwide, so it has imposed sanctions on chips supply to Huawei. 

Huawei's turnaround time must still be considered in the context of the US presidential election, new chip suppliers and its innovation capabilities, Xiang added.

Global Times