by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Sales, SMEs, Technology
By V.S. Chandrasekar,
Barcelona : Dashing hopes of Indian consumers willing to acquire the just-released foldable phone from Huawei any time soon, the company says it is not planning to bring a 4G version of the Mate X shortly and that its availability will depend on the 5G network in the country.
Although India is targeting 2020 for 5G roll-out, the country is yet to allocate 5G spectrum to operators even for 5G trial of use cases.
Expensive at 2,299 euros (about Rs 1,85,000), the foldable Mate X is a 5G phone and as the US has been raising security concerns over use of Huawei 5G equipment, the European market could be the first to see the release of the phone.
Huawei showcased the foldable phone at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Barcelona, on Sunday, but did not allow the visiting journalists to touch the device.
“We expect to start shipping the device form the middle of this year through the carrier channel. Making the device available in the open market may take some time,” Kevin Ho, President of the Handset Business, Huawei Consumer Business Group, told IANS here.
Replying to a question about producing foldable phone for the 4G network, he said that although the company was not focusing on bringing a 4G to suit markets like India, it could consider such a proposal at a later stage.
Powered by the company’s Kirin 980 processor, the Huawei Mate X comes with a 6.6-inch dual display panel and offers a FullView display.
It houses massive 4,500 mAH dual battery and several industry-first features, including a new superfast charging capability that can reach 85 per cent battery in just 30 minutes.
The phone features a flexible OLED panel and a falcon wing mechanical hinge.
“Creating the foldable phone’s hinge is the most challenging part for our engineers,” Ho said. “We had to design the hinge to avoid layers like formation that one gets when one folds a book or a notebook. This was a big challenge and they had to use a sophisticated technology,” he added.
While Ho asserted that the phone was ready for mass production, he acknowledged that the company was still doing several tests and was also in talks with app developers so that apps can be optimised for a foldable device.
The 8GB + 512 GB phone, which can be easily unfolded at the click of a button, now has only one colour, Interstellar Blue, and comes with a full protection case. Huawei said it might introduce new colours for the device at a later stage.
When unfolded, the 6.6-inch dual display panel transforms into an 8-inch tablet only 5.4mm thick.
While unveiling the device on Sunday at a packed hall here, Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu claimed that the phone offers best selfie camera. But the company did not reveal the camera specifications.
“The phone will provide users more privacy and security protection,” he said.
“Today, many carriers are using NSA (non-standalone) architecture, working together with 4G. But the future of 5G is SA (standalone) architecture.
“Mate X is the only phone now with the capability to work in both the architecture. So this phone is not only for today, but also for future 5G,” Yu noted.
Ho parried questions on security concerns raised by countries like the US which accuse Huawei of passing on data to the Chinese government.
“We don’t want to talk about it today. We want to focus on technology and our new products today,” he said.
(V.S. Chandrasekar can be reached at chandru.v@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Ottawa : The US will soon make a formal request for the extradition of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who has been accused of helping the firm dodge US sanctions on Iran, according to the Canadian government.
“I have been told they (the US Justice Department) will proceed,” David MacNaughton, Canada’s Ambassador to Washingtom, told CNN on Monday.
“We have had no indication that they will not.”
Meng Wanzhou’s arrest has strained relations between Canada, the US and China.
A spokesperson from Canada’s Justice Ministry said on Monday that it hasn’t yet received the full extradition request from the US. The deadline for filing the formal request is January 30.
The US Justice Department is yet to officially comment on the development.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver on December 13 by Canadian authorities acting on behalf of the US.
Meng and Huawei have denied any wrongdoing.
Canada maintains that Meng’s detention is a legal matter, and that the country is following national laws and international obligations.
That position was undermined by US President Donald Trump, who last month suggested he may intervene in the legal saga if it would help his pursuit of a trade deal with China.
MacNaughton told CNN on Monday that he has “sought clarification that this is a legal matter and not a chip in a trade dispute.”
“There are Canadians being detained and one sentenced to death,” he added. “This is serious stuff.”
Since Meng’s arrest, China has detained two Canadians on suspicion of “activities that endangered China’s national security”.
Last week, another Canadian was sentenced to death after a court convicted him of drug smuggling.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Sales, SMEs, Technology
New Delhi : Riding on the success of the P20, Mate 20 and Nova series, Huawei on Wednesday said its smartphone shipments for 2018 exceeded 200 million units, a new all-time high for the Chinese phone maker.
Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone seller in the world first in the second quarter of this year and then again in the third quarter with a global market share of 14.6 per cent, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
In the past eight years, Huawei’s smartphone shipments have increased from three million units in 2010 to 200 million units in 2018, reflecting approximately a sixty-six-fold growth, the company said in a statement.
At present, more than 500 million consumers in more than 170 countries around the world are using Huawei smartphones, it added.
Compared to 2017, Huawei sold around 50 million more smartphones this year.
“Looking to the future, Huawei’s consumer business will focus on the core concept of ‘consumer-centric’, and will dare to keep innovating, and make every effort to become a pioneer and leader in the next wave of the smartphone revolution,” Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said in a statement.
Since its release in March, global shipments for Huawei P20 series have exceeded 16 million units, with female users accounting for nearly half of that number.
Within two months of the release of the Huawei Mate 20 series, it had already shipped over five million units, the statement said, ading that as of the end of 2018, the nova series has sold over 65 million units, making it the leader of Huawei’s mid-range devices.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Sales, SMEs, Technology
By Krishna SinhaChaudhury,
New Delhi : Chinese tech giant Huawei has played its biggest bet in India by bringing in its first Mate series smartphone — the Mate 20 Pro — that costs a tad more than Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy Note 9.
Surpassing Apple, Huawei became the second largest smartphone seller in the world, after Samsung in the second quarter this year.
Its latest flagship offering is an attempt to build on the success of P20 Pro in India which had the world’s first triple camera set-up at the rear.
The Rs 69,990 Mate 20 Pro also comes with a triple camera system, a posh built and top-notch internals such as the firm’s homegrown Kirin 980 chipset.
We used the smartphone for a few days and here’s how it fared against other flagships.
One of the high points is Leica-branded triple camera system. We saw the feature earlier on P20 Pro, but in the new device, the company has added a wide-angle sensor instead of a monochrome lens.
The camera also features night, portrait, pro, panorama, monochrome watermark and underwater shooting modes that are really handy.
The triple camera is placed in a 2×2 raised grid design on the rear along with a dual-tone LED flash. The set-up includes a 40MP main sensor, a 20MP ultra-wide angle lens and an 8MP telephoto lens with support for autofocus, laser focus, phase focus and artificial image stabilisation and 3D depth sensing.
The images shot in broad daylight were excellent with vibrant colour reproduction and high dynamic range. We particularly liked the shots taken without the AI mode which now identifies and tweaks settings for up to 1,500 scenes.
Having said that, the smartphone maker has now toned down the presets in blue skies and greenery scenes as compared to the P20 Pro.
Low-light photography did not disappoint either as the images came out bright (however, these looked a tad bit whitish).
The 0.6x macro mode on the device is worth mentioning; it lets you take photos from up to 2.5 cm away with no loss of details.
The emerald green colour variant’s rear had a cool textured pattern that also ensured it did not slip off easily.
The device’s back (in all variants) uses a complex hairline pattern to produce an effect that is not only highly durable but also makes it easy to grip and fingerprint resistant.
The Mate 20 Pro’s 6.39-inch OLED screen is gorgeous with deep blacks and vivid colours. It has a resolution of 3120 x 1440 pixels and can be adjusted according to a user’s needs.
The phone has no lower speaker grille; the sound comes out of the bottom-facing USB-C port and surprisingly, did not get muffled when we plugged it in.
The Kirin 980 chip ensured the device performed blazingly fast. This is the first 7nm chipset on Android phone and came in the market only after Apple’s A12 processor.
The hefty 4200mAh battery easily lasted almost two days on a single charge, giving the smartphone an edge over galaxy S9+.
The addition of a novel feature allows the device to charge other smartphones (with built-in Qi). Once turned on, the reverse charging option lets the user add juice to another compatible phone.
The device can be quickly unlocked via an in-display fingerprint sensor and also through 3D face recognition.
What doesn’t work?
Huawei’s latest version of EMUI based on Android 9 Pie OS is not free of bloatware. There are dozens of pre-installed tool, “smart remote” being one of them. We, like most users, would like Huawei get rid the OS of unwanted apps for a smoother user interface (UI).
The sound output from the unique bottom-firing USB-C port was mostly average.
Absence of a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack can be a bummer for most users.
Conclusion: Huawei has pulled off quite a gorgeous-looking phone with extremely powerful internals. The stellar battery life, triple cameras and great user experience make it a desirable package.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Sales, SMEs
New Delhi : Chinese smartphone maker Huawei’s online focused sub-brand Honor on Friday announced that it sold over 6 million units of the recently launched “Honor 8X” globally, becoming the top “Singles Day” performer in terms of sales volume and revenue under the smartphone category.
In India, over 1 million units of Honor products were sold during the Diwali festive period, with “Honor 9N” and “Honor 8X” being the most popular products on Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon India respectively on the first selling day, the company said.
“As a thanksgiving for our Indian consumers, we would like to announce that unlike other smartphone brands, Honor will not increase the price of its smartphones this year,” said P. Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Consumer Business Group, Huawei.
“Honor 8X” also became one of the highest selling phones in Germany, France, the Middle East, North America and South Asia, the company added.
“Honor 8X”, launched in October in India, comes in three variants — 4GB+64GB, 6GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB, priced at Rs 14,999, Rs 16,999 and Rs 18,999 respectively.
—IANS
