Today, March 31, Huawei held a special event locally, one for the press and in which I participated virtually. A first part of the conference focused on revealing the performances recorded in Romania during 2020, and the second part consisted of launching new products. These include FreeBuds 4i headphones (with a special gift for first-time buyers), a MatePad 10.4 tablet, a Huawei Display 23.8 monitor, an electric toothbrush and a Wi-Fi Mesh router system.
We informed you about these new products in a separate article right here, so in this case we focus on the details of the company's performance locally last year and the expansion in the area of services and other sectors of the market.
Increases in Romania
I found out on this occasion that Huawei's revenues from 2020 on the Romanian market reached 240 million dollars, an increase of 12% compared to the figure recorded in 2019. The non-smartphone sectors also enjoyed significant increases in terms of locally, especially the PC segment which ticked an increase of 1143% compared to 2019.
The PC area will grow soon, with Huawei planning to launch new laptops, PCs and newer IT equipment, such as the new 23.8-inch Huawei Display monitor, which is the first monitor in the company's portfolio.
Notable increases were also recorded in the area of tablets, Huawei mentioning here the fact that it will launch new competitive models on the market and that it will have dedicated offers for the Romanian public. Also, the services that until now were only available on smartphones are to be brought on tablets, and the company says it will focus on the user experience for these products, the design, the visual part, but also the audio part. And productivity is taken into account, with solutions such as Multi-Screen Collaboration.
The company wants to expand massively in the area of services, laptops, laptops and PCs in the next period, and related to laptops - in their case will continue to focus on design, high-end specifications, technology last minute and on the services delivered in the package. The idea of using phones as digital keys for cars, something that exists on the market, was also discussed. We did not go into details, but we discovered that on March 29 Huawei received the "Car Key" trademark in China, a sign that something is being prepared for us in this sector as well.
Performances in Romania
As for the company's local performance in 2020, the most important detail we find out is that Huawei sold over 1 million smartphones in 2020. The share of the smartphone market was 29.3% compared to the units sold in May 2020, and the Huawei P40 Lite saw sales 150% higher than the P30 Lite.
In the area of tablets, Huawei has maintained its best position on the market and we find that among the most appreciated elements in the company's tablets are the design, acoustics and immersive image, the level of productivity delivered and the Multi-Screen Collaboration function. Huawei states that it ranks first in the wearable area as a market share in Romania and that last year there were increases of 350% for the wearable area and 250% for the audio area, respectively.
As for the PC area, here the increases were 1143% in terms of revenue (2020 vs. 2019) and we find out that the best-seller in the 4th quarter was Huawei MateBook D15. Huawei Mobile Services has ticked a steady growth in Romania and we find that there are currently 2000 local applications in the store and that AppGallery is the 3rd largest App Store in Romania. There are 2.5 million Romanian users, and Petal Search has 160,000 active users every month.
Launch e-shop
Last but not least, today we found out that Huawei will launch an official e-shop at huaweistore.ro, a store whose debut is scheduled for April 18, coinciding with the company's anniversary. The inauguration will be marked by special offers for consumers, including contests involving 3000 lei vouchers, a raffle with a prize of 1x Huawei Mate Xs smartphone and Mistery Box gifts.
Huawei also revealed that it plans to expand the service area, launch new wearables by expanding the Watch GT, Fit and FreeBuds series, as well as launching PCs and peripherals.