Who are Apple's biggest competitors and why?

Don’t laugh, but in the smartphone market, you can BE SURE that Apple is looking over its shoulder (esp. in China) at… Huawei.

Huawei? Hu’s that?

Huawei is a Chinese telecom giant that’s the third-largest smartphone maker in the world… and it even passed Apple briefly this past summer for the #2 spot.

Just two days ago, Huawei unveiled the Mate 10, a top-of-the-line handheld device that features most of the iPhone X’s bells and whistles (AI and OLED display, to name a few) but at a lower price point ($826 compared to $999).

Take a look at this baby. It’s a nice lookin phone.

You can bet the Mate 10 is keeping Tim Cook up at night. Apple’s market share in China is draining faster than your iPhone’s battery on Bluetooth (down to 10% from 14% two years ago), and its sales in Greater China fell 12% in Q4 2016.

China is a huge market for Apple, accounting for more than 20% of its revenue and, of course, is home to most of its manufacturing operations.

But Huawei can undercut Apple with its price…and it might turn out that most people don’t want to pay $1,000 for a phone.

Huawei, for its part, has some pretty grand plans. Its CEO of consumer business, Richard Yu, is damned serious about taking on Apple. And he gave hints in an interview that Huawei’s coming stateside to do battle on the Cupertino giant’s home turf.

So when will Yu hop off the plane at LAX? “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said.