GUANGZHOU, China – Honor, the Chinese smartphone brand that was previously owned by Huawei, has launched its first device since it was sold.
Huawei sold Honor, its economic smartphone brand, in November to a consortium of buyers in China as a way to help the unit survive U.S. sanctions.
In 2019, Huawei was blacklisted for export to the U.S. called the Entity List, which restricted U.S. companies from selling certain components to the Chinese technology giant. This included both semiconductors and software.
Google was forced to sever ties with Huawei, so the search giant’s Android mobile operating system could not be installed on the Chinese firm’s devices. This hurt Huawei’s sales in international markets.
Last year, Huawei sold Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, a consortium of 30 agents and distributors. At the time, Huawei said the sale was made so Honor could “overcome that difficult time.”
“Separating the Honor team should help you get the components you need, although this can take many months and is never guaranteed, especially given the geopolitical tension in the air,” Bryan Ma said. , vice president of device research at IDC.
“However, the measure helps keep the team engaged with suppliers in the hope that it can continue with the development of its product.”
Most of the Honor sales come from China. In 2019, Honor shipped 64 million smartphones worldwide, according to IDC. In the first nine months of 2020, the company has shipped 42 million units. Full data for 2020 are not yet available.
The V40
The new Honor smartphone is called the V40. It has a 6.72-inch screen and comes in three colors: silver, black and rose gold.
Honor spoke about the phone’s graphics processing and touch screen features, features that enhance gaming on the device, a popular use of smartphones in China.
It has the ability to connect to next-generation 5G mobile networks, a key requirement in China, which is the world’s largest market for 5G phones.
The V40 uses a 5G key chip from Taiwan’s MediaTek, a company that became China’s number one supplier of semiconductors for smartphones in 2020.
The Honor V40 starts at 3,599 yuan ($ 556) for the 128GB storage option and 3,999 yuan for the 256GB version. It will be released in China, but it is unclear whether it will be released internationally.
“The message (Honor) they want to convey is that they have inherited a lot from Huawei, regardless of the ability of the chipset, photography and R&D (research and development) of all the things they have received from Huawei devices, they have it all “. Said Nicole Peng, Canalys mobile analyst.
“They don’t want to show that they lack Huawei’s R&D capability. They want to show that they still have it and have a great R&D team, and that’s what people were wondering when they split up, if they can. keep this kind of innovation. ”