A launch event for the Huawei Mate 40 series in Shanghai on Friday Photo: Courtesy of Huawei

Huawei unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 40, in China on Friday. The model sold out in seconds on e-commerce platforms after the release.

JD.com said the Huawei Mate 40 series sold out in just 11 seconds on Friday. It said the iPhone 12 series sold out in 45 minutes.

More than 12,000 people bought the model in Huawei’s flagship store on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall on Friday. The first batch of phones sold out in 20 seconds and within 24 hours of the opening of pre-sales, the Mate 40 series was one of the top 10 in terms of pre-sale order numbers for a single product on Tmall. 

Amid the chip supply crisis, it is constantly heard that the Huawei Mate 40 may be the last to feature the company’s high-end chip. According to Huawei, the latest model is powered by a 5-nanometer 5G chipset, the first of its kind in the world.

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

Huawei's mobile phone sales have been falling recently amid a shortage of stock. But no matter how difficult it is, Huawei's handset business is bound to continue, said Yu, adding that Huawei has nearly 800 million mobile phones in use worldwide.

Global smartphone shipments fell 1.3 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to 353.6 million units, according to a report from IDC on Thursday. Huawei took second place in terms of market share with 14.7 percent, after its shipments fell 22 percent from a year earlier to 51.9 million units amid the US crackdown.

Chinese brand Xiaomi surpassed Apple to take third place. Xiaomi's shipments rose 42 percent to 46.5 million. Apple shipped 41.6 million iPhones in the third quarter, down 10.6 percent from a year earlier.