Just a couple of years back, Huawei was already setting its eyes on storming the US market and also edging Samsun out of the number one spot to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Both visions are presently out of the brand’s thoughts as it struggles to survive amidst the recent US ban that has made it impossible to get ICs for its smartphones. 
Huawei’s market share is already expected to start taking a hit soon even though the brand still led the Chinese smartphone market in Q3 2020. Huawei’s market share is expected to be snatched away by Apple but the US smartphone vendor may not be the only beneficiary of Huawei’s slump.
According to a report by DigiTimes, sources from Taiwan-based IC suppliers have disclosed that other leading Android smartphone OEMs such as Samsung Electronics, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have reportedly increased their purchases of IC parts. This is in a bid take over the smartphone market share relinquished by Huawei as a result of the US trade sanctions.
The sources hinted that Android phone makers have placed orders for LCD driver ICs in the quarter which exceeded the quarterly shipments of related chips shipped to Huawei previously. Further, some ambient light sensor suppliers also revealed that China’s handset vendors are building their inventories for such chips aggressively as they intensify efforts to expand their market share at the domestic and overseas markets to fill the vacuum created by Huawei’s ban.
Also, most IC suppliers believe that a great portion of current IC orders for handset applications involves double bookings by handset brands in light of tight capacity at foundry houses. However, these inventories could create problems for the OEMs if their market share fails to increase as expected.
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