 |
| Huawei denies plans to sell the P and Mate series |
Reuters reported that the Chinese company Huawei is negotiating the sale of two of its P and Mate smartphones. This may lead to the company withdrawing from the high-end smartphone industry.
Negotiations between the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and a consortium led by an investment firm backed by the Shanghai government have been going on for several months.
Huawei began studying the brand's internal selling potential again in September. Between the third quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, Mate and P cell phone shipments totaled nearly $ 29.7 billion.
Huawei has yet to make a final decision on the sale, however, negotiations may fail as the company is still trying to make high-quality, locally designed Kirin chips that can power its smartphones.
In response, Huawei officials issued a statement to Chinese media that the company has no plans to sell its cellular business and continues to manufacture advanced cell phones. However, this statement does not describe in detail how this was done.
A Huawei spokesperson said: Huawei has learned that potential sales rumors of our major smartphone brands are unfounded. This rumor is completely unfounded and Huawei has no such plans.
The potential sales of Huawei's high-end smartphone line indicate that the company has little hope that the new Biden administration will be able to change its stance on supply chain restrictions imposed since May 2019.
Shanghai government-backed investment firms could form a consortium to acquire the P and Mate brands, similar to the Honer deal. If the deal succeeds, Huawei will likely retain the current P & Mate management team for the new company as well. .
In November last year, Huawei announced the sale of its Honer Budget brand to a coalition of 30 dealers led by a Shenzhen city government-backed company with a market value of over $ 15.5 billion.
The purpose of selling Honor is to preserve the budget brand as US sanctions cripple the supply chain and prevent Honor from accessing key components such as chips.
Huawei may have similar goals to continue selling mobile phone brands, as Huawei's recent plans for these two high-end brands are based on insufficient supply of segments.
Richard Yu, the company's primary consumer group, said last year that Huawei may soon stop making Kirin chips due to US restrictions, and analysts expect the product to be phased out this year.
P and Mate series phones are one of the best players in the high-end Chinese smartphone market that can compete with Apple's iPhones, Xiaomi Mi and Mix series, and OPPO's Find series.
In the third quarter of 2020, the sales of these two brands accounted for nearly 40% of Huawei's total sales. Analysts have indicated that the recent offerings of the P40 and Mate 40 series are insufficient due to serious component defects.