If we knew it would be complicated for Huawei to be a smartphone giant again, we now have the impression that they don’t want it anymore. The latest presentation of its product, as well as the statements of its president in Europe seem to attest to all this.
If you’re looking for a clue to make sure you’re convinced that Huawei is putting the towel on its smartphones, at least unofficially, the Chinese giant’s latest presentation should work.
In a conference of almost 45 minutes, only 12 minutes and 27 seconds were allotted in this first main universe for the manufacturer. In this short time, only one smartphone has been presented. A phone that, moreover, is unlikely to be bought by anyone: fold, without Google, all for the expensive price of 2000 euros.
A conference dominated by watches
All the rest of the conference focused on a sector that is now even more enthusiastic for the company banned from the American market, wearables and broader themes of health and wellness. Five products belonging to this field are presented, three watches, a connected bracelet, an activity tracker.
Huawei is also looking for new growth drivers in terms of subscription sales. At the software level, the manufacturer is presenting the upcoming sports support service via subscription, Huawei Health +, which is currently available for Germany and Italy.
An economic situation in the middle of the mast
Faced with these statements, you might be thinking that if Apple was spending a conference on Macs, we weren’t saying that the Apple brand was abandoning iPhones. Admittedly, but Huawei is in a much more complicated situation and will surely have to look for new outlets: in 2021, its turnover will fall by 28.6%. In China too, sales fell last year by 31%. A drop explained at the moment is not in the loss of Google services – not available in China – but in smartphones currently sold without 5 G compatibility.
In addition, Huawei itself tells us that smartphones are no longer a priority, even if they’re not ready to throw in the towel:
William Tiann, President of Huawei for Europe said in Milan, during a meeting with the press where Frandroid helped: “As you know, we’re struggling with smartphones. […] We’ll focus more on the home office and appliances, but we’re not going to abandon the smartphone business. »
Among the concerns encountered by Huawei smartphones in the European market, the frequent return of a 5G modem to phones even though sold at an expensive price, as well as a damaged software experience without Google.
HarmonyOS and 5G do not
Asked about the return of 5G on his phones, the executive first explained that “Huawei has the best Wi-Fi and wireless connectivity technology. Huawei is also always open to collaborating to get all the components, including 5G chipsets”, unable to communicate a road map on this topic. As for the arrival of HarmonyOS on its phones, which could provide a real alternative to Android, the manager also spoke, but in a more direct way: “We don’t currently plan to release phones running HarmonyOS this year”while specifying, for form, that its final fold, the Mate Xs 2 has specific HarmonyOS features.
As you can understand, between these statements and the presentation that is almost entirely focused on wearables, there is every reason to think that Huawei has never considered the smartphone as a priority. Having enough understanding of them, let’s face it.
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