Bloomberg
Huawei debuts at $ 2,800 after barely growing sales in 2020
(Bloomberg) – Huawei Technologies Co. has picked up a high-end foldable smartphone to secure a place in the fast-growing category. At the height of the Trump-era sanctions, sales and profits barely grew in 2020, China’s largest tech company is trying to keep its shrinking mobile device business alive, despite fading expectations that Washington will soon be rolling back its curbs. On Monday, the 17,999 yuan ($ 2,800) Mate X2 was unveiled, which folds into an 8-inch (203 mm) screen with Huawei’s own 5G Kirin 9000 chip, after Washington adopted American technology and major suppliers like After Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had cut off, billionaire Ren Zhengfei has vowed to continue his smartphone business and rejected reports of a possible sale. The company is now focused on serving corporate customers to make up for the lost business. “We saw marginal revenue and earnings growth,” said Ken Hu, the company’s current rotating chairman, at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai on Tuesday. “We will work with partners to deploy Huawei products in their company. Through these partnerships, we hope that Huawei can not only develop a range of solutions from scratch, but also duplicate those solutions on a large scale. Read More: Huawei Quarterly Revenue Growth Slows, Hit By US Sanctions Huawei Has Reduced Phone Production Nearly To A Minimum According To Those Familiar With The Matter, The Existing Mate X2 May Go Up For Sale In China On Feb.25, to preserve the existing component cache and to extend the life cycle of its devices. This is causing product shortages at retailers across the country at 18,999 yuan for a more powerful version with 512 gigabytes of storage. It will run a China-tailored version of Google’s Android, which lacks the US company’s key apps and commercial features, but which can be upgraded to Huawei’s own Harmony operating system in April. “We have prepared enough capacity for the Mate X2, the capacity is growing daily,” said Richard Yu, Managing Director of Huawei’s consumer electronics unit, at a launch event in Shanghai on Monday. They said Monday that more of the company’s top tier phones will be powered by its own software rather than Android in the future. Read more: Huawei founder promises to continue making smartphones in Biden EraHuawei. In 2019, it got at the heart of US-China tensions after the White House identified it as a national security threat and later imposed a series of trade restrictions. Those restrictions slowed growth, forcing the company to sell its low-end Honor device arm last year. Ren has called on the new US administration to pursue an “open policy” towards Huawei, which in turn would benefit American suppliers. However, Biden’s candidate for trade secretary, Gina Raimondo, said that during her Senate confirmation process, she knew “no reason” why the Trump-era curbs should not continue. Huawei’s smartphone shipments fell 42% in the last three months of 2020, while their biggest competitors were Samsung Electronics Co., Apple Inc., and Xiaomi Corp. have won all market shares, according to IDC researchers. Read More: Samsung’s $ 1,999 Fold 2 Corrects Major Foldable Phone Flaws For more items like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com. Sign up now to stay ahead of the curve with the most trusted business news source. © 2021 Bloomberg LP
