(Yicai Global) April 29 -- Huawei Technologies’ semiconductor unit, which makes the Kirin chipset, has elbowed aside US giant Qualcomm to become China’s top supplier of mobile phone processors for the first time, according to a new report.

Hisilicon's market share jumped to 43.9 percent in the first quarter from 36.5 percent in the last three months of last year, according to the report published today by Cinno Research, a consultancy specializing in the flat-panel display and semiconductor industries. Qualcomm’s share fell to 32.8 percent from 37.8 percent.

The changeover is largely a reflection of Shenzhen-based Huawei’s greater use of self-developed chips in its smartphones and a growing focus on the domestic market after being placed on a US technology blacklist last year that blocks its access to Google’s Android updates.

Despite the fallout from the Covid-19 epidemic which led to a 22 percent drop in first quarter mobile phone sales in China, Huawei held steady with 6 percent growth from the year before. Its market share rose to 39 percent that quarter from 37 percent in the previous quarter, according to Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research.

Hisilicon’s Kirin chipset can now be found in over 90 percent of the telecom giant’s phones. As a result, while smartphone processor sales slumped 44.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, Hisilicon was the only manufacturer whose shipments remained at a level similar to 2019 at 22.2 million units, Cinno added.

Other big players in China’s mobile phone chip market are Taiwan’s MediaTek, which ranked third with 13.1 percent market share, and US tech giant Apple, which came fourth at 8.5 percent. Everyone else had a total of less than 2 percent market share, Cinno said.

Editor: Kim Taylor