Huawei trudges along despite U.S. pressure, will sell 230M phones this year

2019 has been a tough year for Huawei. It's CFO, who also happens to be the CEO's daughter, was arrested in Canada, while the U.S. government has waged a relentless war against its networking business. It was also placed on the U.S. Entity List, preventing American companies from supplying crucial hardware and software that Huawei depends on for its products.

Despite that pressure, Huawei has continued its forward march toward dethroning Samsung and becoming the biggest smartphone maker in the world. Thanks to the willingness of its partners to bend the rules, patriotic support in China, and even a little bit of help from the U.S. itself, the company finally started increasing smartphone shipments again in Q3 despite a largely stagnant H1. And now, the CEO of the company's consumer wing says his division will likely one-up itself with 30 million more phones sold this year than the last. That's a whopping 230 million units in 2019, compared to 200 million last year.

All of that's despite the lack of Google Services on its newest phones, making them a tough sell anywhere outside China. A preliminary trade deal between the U.S. and China may not necessarily affect Huawei's fortunes all that much, but if the company continues its trajectory, it may soon meet its goal of dominating the smartphone market regardless.