Nham Chinh Phi hopes Honor’s cheap smartphone will surpass Huawei

Huawei just held a farewell party to the popular phone brand Honor. At the ceremony, Huawei boss Nham Chinh Phi shared, hoping to see Honor become Huawei’s strongest rival in the world, surpassing Huawei, even beating Huawei as motivation.

Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker, announced the sale of all Honor assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, an alliance of more than 30 agents and merchants, on Nov. 17. The deal comes after the US imposed a tighter embargo on Huawei from May this year that prevented Huawei from buying chips made with US software or technology regardless of whether it is an American company or not.

Mr. Nham Chinh Phi attended the discussion session at Huawei headquarters on June 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Comparing the deal with a “divorce”, Mr. Nham said that he would completely divest from Honor in accordance with international regulations. “Once we have” divorced “, we should not connect any more. We are all adults. We should handle everything independently, follow international practices and achieve our own goals, ”said Nham.

Explaining the decision to sell Honor, Nham admitted, US sanctions on Huawei threaten millions of jobs, as well as supply from Huawei dealers and traders from 170 countries.

“We cannot draw innocent people in because of our own suffering. After the sale, Honor quickly resumed production under Zhixin’s leadership to resolve issues with its partners.

Mr. Nham warned that Honor will face “bigger problems than any other new company” and urged former employees to pursue globalization, learning from UK, US, EU, and Japanese businesses. Taiwan, South Korea as well as cooperation with domestic partners.

Since its inception in 2013, Honor has become one of the most popular Chinese smartphone brands, selling more than 70 million units a year. According to Huawei, Honor’s revenue is around $ 10 billion. Market research firm IDC estimates that Honor accounted for about 28% of all Huawei smartphones shipped in the first half of this year.

Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology is the company established to take over Honor.

According to SCMP