Huawei unveiled a new smartphone packed with advanced technology, but experts say its prospects for overseas sales are bleak.
Huawei unveiled its Mate 40 smartphone Thursday (Oct. 22) with an upgraded camera, the latest Kirin chip and a better battery, but the new phone has limited room to grow in overseas markets under U.S. sanctions.
The first is that the Kirin chip may not be sustainable. The AP report mentions that the Mate 40 smartphone may be the last phone to use the Kirin chip, as the U.S. government requires manufacturers using U.S. technology to obtain an export license to supply Huawei with related products. Huawei chief Yu Chengdong said this summer that production of Kirin chips could be halted in mid-September because U.S. technology is needed by contractors producing the chips. He said, “Huawei is in a very difficult time right now, and we are experiencing a third round of bans from the U.S. government.”
Secondly, as a result of the last round of U.S. sanctions, the Mate 40 smartphone can only use Google’s open-source version of the Android operating system, and can’t run all of them, so it can’t access Google’s Play Store or run popular Google applications such as Chrome and YouTube. 29-year-old Preston, England resident Mark Mark Osten bought a Huawei P30 phone last year when his Samsung cell phone contract expired. He told the Associated Press that the Huawei phone had a good camera, but was full of uncertainty. He said, “I can’t imagine how I’d live without YouTube and Google.”
To make up for the loss of Google’s service, Huawei has set up its own app store, where users can request apps that aren’t on their phones. 35-year-old Chloe Hetelle of Toulouse, France, bought a Huawei P20 two years ago to replace her Apple phone, which she used to use. She told the Associated Press, “I don’t want to specifically request apps, I just want to have YouTube” and “I really don’t want to bother getting something I can easily get from another phone.”
Ben Wood, a principal researcher at analyst firm CCS Insight, told the AP that he doesn’t think the Mate 40 “is going to do particularly well outside of China.
Huawei overtook Samsung this summer to become the world’s largest seller of smartphones, shipping 55.8 million smartphones in the second quarter, accounting for 20 percent of the global market. But the market for Huawei’s phones was driven largely by China’s economic growth, with sales of its phones slipping in other parts of the world due to the neo-crown virus outbreak. Analysts believe that it will be difficult for Huawei to maintain its position as the number one smartphone seller worldwide.
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