How are US sanctions slowly stifling Huawei smartphones?

Tram Ho

Market analysis reports show that, in the second quarter of the year, Huawei rose to become the world’s largest smartphone maker, surpassing Samsung and Apple by offering consumers phones with cameras. good and competitive price.

But that is probably the last moment that Huawei shines when it is facing increasingly dangerous situations.

The US government’s sanctions in May 2019 have made the world consumers gradually alienate the brand when their phones launched without Google services apps. Now the new US sanctions on the supply chain have caused Huawei to lose the supply of Kirin chips completely, leaving them in a situation of losing the whole domestic market.

Các đòn trừng phạt của Mỹ đang từ từ bóp nghẹt smartphone Huawei như thế nào? - Ảnh 1.

The highlight from the Kirin chip is gone

While these Kirin chips are designed by Huawei’s subsidiary, HiSilicon, they are manufactured by TSMC. Therefore, when the Trump administration banned semiconductor manufacturers from using US technology to supply Huawei chips, TSMC soon said that the company had complied with US regulations and stopped supplying. chip supply for Huawei.

However, according to Canalys analyst Nicole Peng, Huawei probably still has enough Kirin chipsets until the end of this year. After that, the company will probably have to turn to sourcing the chips from MediaTek. Will Wong, an analyst at IDC, also said that Huawei can still buy chipsets available from another company to supply its devices.

Các đòn trừng phạt của Mỹ đang từ từ bóp nghẹt smartphone Huawei như thế nào? - Ảnh 2.

Kirin chips have always been the highlight of Huawei smartphones.

But using MediaTek’s chipset would ruin Huawei’s competitive advantage over smartphone hardware. Losing the Kirin chipset ” will definitely affect the unique highlight ” of Huawei smartphones.

The Kirin chips are inherently designed for Huawei’s mid-range and high-end smartphones. They are more powerful and premium than MediaTek chipsets as well as have better AI technology, image processing capabilities and 5G. That’s why Kirin chips often appear in flagship devices like the Mate and P series.

Now, ” not being able to use Kirin chips will create a lot of instability for Huawei, especially for high-end phones ,” Wong said. ” Anyway, Huawei is still a strong national brand in China, a big driver of sales ” for the company.

The advantages from the domestic market are fading

This advantage has helped significantly with Huawei outperforming most other Chinese brands last quarter, when shipped nearly 40 million smartphones in China, up more than 8% over the same period last year.

Các đòn trừng phạt của Mỹ đang từ từ bóp nghẹt smartphone Huawei như thế nào? - Ảnh 3.

China’s early reopening of its economy after the Covid-19 pandemic helped boost Huawei’s sales. Even so, analysts say that when most countries begin to reopen globally, the advantage from China’s home turf is no longer, it is likely that Huawei’s market share will decline.

That’s because Huawei’s international smartphone business is having a hard time following US government bans that prevent the company from having default Google service apps. Since then, overseas sales of Huawei smartphones have been steadily declining. From accounting for 50% of the company’s total shipments, now Huawei’s overseas market only accounts for 30%, the rest 70% of shipments are from China.

But even in China, Huawei is facing stiff competition from other countrymen, including Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi, which have long established relationships with other chipmakers. including MediaTek and Qualcomm.

For Huawei, the possibility of relying on MediaTek’s chips, which are also being used on rival devices, may gradually lose their domestic market share in the hands of their country rivals. .

Refer to CNN

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Source : Genk