Before international tensions and sanctions sent Huawei into crisis, it was making significant progress not just in its core carrier networks business, but in devices. It had become the leading smartphone vendor in China, and was also gaining strong popularity for its devices in many international markets. It even temporarily overtook Apple for the global second place in the handset rankings and seemed to be snapping at Samsung’s heels. Since then, the pressures on Huawei have weighed on its devices business. These are threefold: Operators steering clear of the vendor in case they get caught up in trade restrictions. Huawei being less able to access components as a result of US sanctions on its companies being able to supply the…