Huawei denies smartphone exit plans

Details: Manny Pham; Category: Devices & Platforms; 26 January 2021; 7804 views

Huawei strongly denied media reports claiming the manufacturer was in discussion to sell its premium smartphone brands, a move in preparation to exit the smartphone making business which had been hindered by US trade sanctions.

In a statement, the Chinese vendor said: “There is no merit to these rumours whatsoever. Huawei has no such plan. We remain fully committed to our smartphone business, and will continue to deliver world-leading products and experiences for consumers around the world.”

The statement followed a Reuters article citing sources, who said Huawei began talks to sell its premium Mate and P-series ranges in September to a consortium led by the Shanghai government.

The Shanghai government said it was not aware of the situation and declined to comment further to Reuters.

Analyst company IDC stated the Mate and P-series ranges were worth $39.7 billion between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020.

Huawei saw huge growth over the years and became the second-largest smartphone manufacturer globally according to most analyst metrics. It was stifled by trade sanctions laid out by the US government in 2019, which prevented domestic companies from providing software and hardware to Huawei.

An example was Huawei smartphones no longer came preinstalled with Google Mobile Services, preventing users access to the Google Play Store, and by proxy, the app's library of apps. In response, the company launched programmes to gain app developer support for its Huawei Mobile Services.