20.4%. Apple, meanwhile, was at 10.5%, its
share having fallen by 13% compared to what
the Cupertino company achieved in 2018’s
corresponding quarter.
A table shared by VentureBeat shows that
fourth-placed Xiaomi isn’t too far behind Apple,
as the Chinese, budget-friendly company took
9% of the market. “We’ve reached somewhat
of a plateau for smartphones,” Tuong Nguyen,
senior principal analyst at Gartner, observed
to MarketWatch, adding: “Incremental
feature upgrades are indistinguishable for
most consumers. What I already have [with
smartphone features] in my hand or pocket is
more than I will ever use.”
However, this doesn’t quite tell the whole story
of why Chinese brands are thriving as Apple
falters. In mid-May, Huawei was added to the
U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of
Industry and Security Entity List, effectively
blacklisting the brand’s phones from sale
through U.S. communications networks. This
development initially hit the Beijing firm’s
smartphone sales, but they have since recovered
due to eased restrictions and, in China,
nationalistic buying.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM:
THE U.S.-CHINA TRADE WAR
In early August, the Chinese government
devalued its currency in a bid to ease the blow
of the Trump administration’s tariffs against
the country. The People’s Republic has good
reason to believe that, despite risking capital
flight and inflation, its currency devaluation
is one radical move worth making. After all, as