Your Tech Story

huawei

Huawei

Huawei Usurps Samsung to Become Biggest Smartphone Seller of the Last Quarter

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

The year 2020 has brought several firsts, partly due to COVID-19, and the rest due to the lockdown it caused. No industry or field has been left alone by this global pandemic as the global economy took a tumble. However, certain companies have braved the storm and come out on top. As per a report by analyst enterprise Canalys, Huawei has shipped more mobile phones in a quarter than any other smartphone manufacturer. Here’s a closer look at what this means for the world of technology, and how buyers can benefit from this shift in power.

Huawei On Top

Huawei has climbed to the top of the charts with regards to the number of units shipped within a quarter, beating out the likes of Apple and Samsung. The company has had hopes of usurping Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone seller for a while. The reports by Canalys prove that is exactly what happened between April and June in 2020. However, the report does not claim that Huawei will hang on to the title for long. The ongoing global pandemic had a big role to play in how these numbers turned out. Therefore, experts believe that things will turn around soon enough, as the world retraces its steps back to normalcy. 

Impact of the Global Pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19, Huawei suffered a 5% loss in terms of year-on-year sales, shipping 55.8 million smartphones last quarter. However, within the same period, Samsung suffered a fall of 30%, hitting a low of 53.7 million units. The most integral point here is that over 70% of Huawei’s sales come from mainland China. The country was somehow able to escape the harrowing effects of the pandemic, leading to it becoming a more viable market. However, Samsung did not have the same fortune, as they were not as big a player as Huawei within China.

Huawei Hoping for Better Days

A Huawei spokesperson stated that the news was very welcome for the company amidst such troubling times. The achievement was also a result of their exceptional resilience, and a harbinger for better times to come. While the company braved unprecedented and unforeseen circumstances, they focused on growing their brand, leading to their claim on the top spot. Analysts at Canalys credit the COVID-19 for Huawei’s resurgence and shoot to the top. Ben Stanton, who serves as a Senior analyst, stated that the company made good use of China’s economic recovery to shoot to first place.

Difficulties Ahead

Things have not been easy for the Chinese manufacturer, though their phones have impressive hardware. Rising political tensions and sanctions on phones have threatened their hold on foreign markets. The recently launched Huawei P40 was regarded to be a remarkable phone by most who reviewed it. The company reached the zenith of its technical prowess, hitting the best hardware specs at an affordable price. 

However, President Trump’s trade war against China has borne bad news for the company. America recently put Huawei on its Entity List, meaning most American companies now cannot hold trade discussions and do business with it. As a result, the Chinese manufacturer can no longer ship phones containing Google services or apps. In fact, their phones cannot even hold the quintessential Google Play Store, leading to an almost instantaneous reduction in demand. 

Huawei Vs. Samsung

Mirroring Samsung, Huawei to has two separate flagship models, the P, and Mate series. While the P series somewhat resembles Samsung’s S series being more mainstream and simple, the Mate Series takes after Samsung’s Note Series. These phones suit power users and come with a sleuth of super-specific features. However, unlike Samsung, Huawei has made both these series look drastically different. The P40, as a result, has rounded edges and a softer design with an OLED screen and subtle curves. Also, like with the Galaxy S20 U, the P40 offers periscope-telephoto cameras, which are still hard to find in the American market. Therefore, we can see stiff competition between both brands as they try to dominate the smartphone market on a global scale. 

However, Samsung says there is no cause to worry, claiming it will bounce back soon enough. In fact, the company posted operating profit rising by 23% despite revenue dropping by over 6%. They say they have recovered from the global economic hit faster than imagined, and that sales will be back to normal soon enough. While Huawei might have to recede its top spot soon enough, its continued strength in the Chinese market will provide some much-needed hope.

Huawei mapping kit

Huawei to Launch its own Mapping Kit as the Result of the China-U.S. Trade War

Leave a Comment / News, Product, Tech News / By

The ban that the U.S. government had put on Huawei has made its experiment with its own products, and after it announced HarmonyOS (HongmengOS), the company has revealed that it is going to launch its own home-grown mapping kit similar to the Google Maps. Though the company has still not admitted that the HarmonyOS will be empowering its smartphones, it definitely is going to feature its mapping app into them.

The company has been facing some serious issues, and it got almost banned in the U.S. Though the company got a relaxation for the trade in the U.S., and it is expected to get 90 more days to operate in the country, it still is banned from embedding Google Maps into its smartphones.

This has led the company to take another step towards independence, such that it is already up to developing on its own mapping app, named Map Kit. The company will be incorporating over 150 countries into the very mapping kit, and for that, it will be operating with the local mapping apps.

Huawei mapping kit

The mapping app is not for the public use, instead, the developers would be able to create their map apps based on the kit. The kit will combine features, like street views and navigation, that will also show real-time traffic condition. The kit can also be used to add a location tracking feature in other apps, and for that, the kit will render support for the augmented reality.

“Huawei Map Kit will be available in 40 languages. It will offer real-time traffic conditions and a highly sophisticated navigation system which can recognize a car changing lanes. It will also support augmented-reality mapping,” Zhang Pingan, the president of cloud services of the consumer business group at Huawei, said in a statement.

But the company still has got into ties with an American company named Booking Holdings to work on the new mapping service. The U.S. government has though given the company the permit to work in the U.S. market, still the company is now aware that it is not permanent, and the company has to bring its own products if it wants to continue to rule the smartphone market.

In the past, many big companies have tried to build their own products, and not all have succeeded in that. The independence from the use of the third-party product will help Huawei to focus on the smartphone markets other than the U.S., and the company can also gain the customer base for its products, that the other companies would use into their products, such as is new HarmonyOS and the mapping kit. Huawei will be bringing the mapping kit in coming October.

huawei hongmeng

Huawei is Already Testing its In-house OS based Smartphone

Leave a Comment / News, Product, Tech News / By

It has been a tough year for Huawei, the China-based tech company. From ban in the U.S. and Australia, the company was also accused of passing the data to Beijing government. But the company had been on constant denial. The ban on the company had led it to produce some home-grown products such that those bans do not make it suffer in the other markets.

Recently, the company revealed that it is working on a new OS Hongmeng, but also cleared at the same time that it is not meant for the smartphones. The company said that it is building a new OS for its other Huawei devices, including the internet-of-things products and will continue to use Android as its smartphone OS, Honor-brand smart TV, being the first device to get it.

But according to a recent report from Global Times, the Chinese state media, Huawei is ready to launch a new smartphone powered by the Hongmeng OS, which may go on sale by the end of this year, meaning that Huawei is still backing up for its future.

huawei hongmeng
Image Source: dignited.com

The launch of the new Hongmeng smartphones is clearly an indication that even if the tech giant Google stops it from using the Android OS in its devices, it is ready with the alternative. But still, the company is mute on embedding the OS into a smartphone. Even in an interview with The Reuters, the company made no comments on the matter.

According to an unknown source, the smartphone will cost 2,000 yuan ($288). The chances are that the first smartphone that will be equipped with the new Hongmeng may be the Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro smartphone. This means the upcoming smartphone will target the mid-range smartphone market. The OS is based on the microkernel, making it compatible with various devices as well as open to adapt to the Artificial Intelligence features.

Reportedly, the company will be talking about the new OS in the upcoming developer conference to be held on Friday, August 9th in Dongguan, China. Beliving the reports, the company has already completed its work on the OS and is already in the process of testing the OS for various devices. Though Trump has said that the sanctions will be relaxed, it seems that Huawei does not want to take any chances anymore.

Hongmeng OS

Hongmeng OS is not Designed to Replace Android : Huawei

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By

The past few months have been quite challenging for the Chinese tech company Huawei. It has faced partial ban in one of the biggest smartphone markets of the US and Australis and has been the centre of criticism for having ties with China.

Amid all there issues, the company is trying to improve its grip on the smartphone industry, and reportedly, had plans to replace Google’s Android OS with its homegrown Hongmeng operating system. But the company now has completely denied the reports and has claimed that Android will remain the OS for its smartphones.

Huawei’s senior vice president Catherine Chen told the reporters in Brussels that Hongmeng is not a smartphone OS, and the company has no plans to use a self-developed OS for its smartphones as well as the other mobile devices.

Hongmeng OS
Image Source: techradar.com

According to Chen, the OS has been developed for the industrial usage, and its development started even before the company started facing the issues with the U.S. The company chairman Liang Hua also gave a statement stating that the very operating system is designed for internet-of-things (IoT) devices.

But if we go back to June, the statement given by Huawei VP, Andrew Williamson, was a bit different. He had told the Reuters, “Huawei is in the process of potentially launching a replacement. It’d be ready in months in the event of an Android blacklisting. It’s not something Huawei wants. We’re very happy being part of the Android family, but Hongmeng is being tested, mostly in China.”

In fact, after the blacklisting of Huawei by most of the U.S. companies, the Huawei CEO Richard Yu had also said that Huawei would be ready to use its alternatives. He had also mentioned that the upcoming OS will be used in a variety of devices like routers, network switches, tablets, computers and data centres, etc.

Based on the past reports, Huawei even was conducting tests for the OS on smartphones, and according to a few testers, Hongmeng is based on open-source Android and offers 60 per cent faster performance than Android.

But now, it seems that the company no more wants to replace the OS. This change in the decision can be due to Trump’s announcement that permitted the U.S. companies to come back in business with Huawei. So now Huawei can regain its access to the Android OS and does not need another OS to embed into its smartphones.

Facebook Cuts Off Huawei From Pre-Installing its Apps On Phones

News, Tech News / By
Huawei Facebook
Image Source: besthqwallpapers.com

The U.S. has been trying hard to pull out most of the Chinese firms operating in the country, giving the reason of national security threat due to the data breaches, Huawei being the primary target. Recently, the U.S. authority has released a blacklisting of the Chinese tech firms, responding to which, Facebook has announced that it will stop pre-installation of its popular social networking apps on Huawei smartphones and other devices.

This way, Facebook will become the first U.S. company to cut-off Huawei from using its app. Last month, Google had also announced that it would cut ties to Huawei, to make it harder for the company to get access to the U.S. apps. As soon as Google bans Huawei from using its app, firstly Huawei will be isolated from using Google Play Store, which is the single place where all the Android apps can be obtained. So for the company, it can be quite difficult to sustain in other countries as well.

Facebook’s decision has come right after the release of Washington blacklisting, and as a response of President Donald Trump’s orders of barring Huawei from US technology exports.

“We are reviewing the Commerce Department’s final rule and the more recently issued temporary general license and taking steps to ensure compliance.” said a spokesperson from Facebook.

Since Facebook is already banned in China, the barring of Facebook app for Huawei won’t affect much the Facebook’s user base.

On the matter, Huawei has come out with the decision to build its own operating system to run on its smartphone and other cellular devices. And if Google also pulls its support for Huawei, it will also need to build a Play Store kind of marketplace for its users to access the various apps at a single place.

Washington has imposed the U.S. sanction starting from May 15 and has provided the U.S. companies with a stretch of 90 days to follow the same. Since all the U.S. technology companies need to end their partnership with Huawei, the latter would also need to look for reliable hardware suppliers. As it has been dependent on the U.S. companies, like Intel, Qualcomm and Broadcom, for chips and the other hardware supplies.

Huawei Recorded a 25% Rise in its Revenue Despite US Efforts to Curb its Business

News, Tech News / By

Huawei has just revealed its last year’s revenue and with that, it has entered the same league as Google and Microsoft, surpassing the $100 billion milestone. The two companies had reported a revenue of over $100 last year and with a 20 per cent annual rise in the profits, Huawei has also entered the multinational technology companies in the US$100 billion club.

huawei
Image Source: news.cgtn

Although Huawei has been facing some issues in running the business in the other countries, and came under siege by the US government for the functioning of its 5G network in the country last year, the recorded revenue shows that if the company would be functioning fully in the US, it would have earned much more profits.

Huawei is the third largest smartphone maker, and most of the revenue it earned was from its smartphone sales. The smartphone division of the company has made a 45 per cent of share in the profits. The company is also the biggest telecommunications equipment seller in the world, and this very division contributed almost 50 per cent in the profits.

Although the contribution of the carrier technology division of Huawei fell by a 1.3 per cent and contributed the least, this is considered as an effect of the US opposing other countries use the Huawei equipment in their telecommunications networks.

Along with the US, Australia has already banned the use of Huawei equipment. And, due to the Huawei’s cybersecurity practices, UK and EU are also considering banning the use of the company’s equipment in next-generation networks.

The company is blamed for spying for the Chinese government by the US government, which the company has been denying saying that its products are no threat to the national security of other countries. Still, the company has confirmed that it has signed a few contracts for its 5G networks in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

The recorded revenue shows the fastest growth of the company in the last two years, and with the new contracts, the company may see some more growth in the coming future.