Apple, Xiaomi Take Bite Out of Huawei’s Withering Smartphone Share

Huawei’s smartphone sales tumbled by nearly half in last year’s fourth quarter, as its continued suffering under the weight of U.S. sanctions saw it to yield market share to the surging Apple and Xiaomi. Huawei’s woes came even as the global smartphone market expanded for the first time in a year, with shipments up 4.3% year-on-year to 385.9 million units in the three months through December, according to preliminary data from IDC. Huawei was the only one of the top five brands to record a decline, as its 42.4% sales drop made it the No. 5 vendor with 8.4% market share. IDC attributed the market’s broader resilience to a number of factors, including pent-up demand,...