Home United States USA — IT Huawei's Mate 40 Pro could be firm's last hurrah in the smartphone...

Huawei's Mate 40 Pro could be firm's last hurrah in the smartphone world

221
0
SHARE

Huawei on Thursday welcomed into the world the latest addition to its flagship lineup: the Mate 40 Pro. But the phone’s arrival was bittersweet. …
Huawei on Thursday welcomed into the world the latest addition to its flagship lineup: the Mate 40 Pro. But the phone’s arrival was bittersweet. The device launched under a dark cloud, with a combination of US sanctions and reputational damage to the company raising the question of whether the Mate 40 Pro will be the last Huawei phone of its kind. Since 2018, the US government has been imposing increasingly harsh sanctions on Huawei due to the company’s purported links to the Chinese Communist Party. That’s the reason Huawei’s phones, which are popular elsewhere in the world, including Europe, aren’t on sale in the US. It’s also why the Mate 40 series is the third lot of Huawei flagships (after the Mate 30 and P40 series) to arrive without access to Google services. Over the past year, Huawei has made great strides to beef up its app offering and homegrown Harmony operating system, but it still doesn’t match up to Google and Apple. That’s made it hard to recommend Huawei devices over Android rivals. The lack of access to Android’s key services is taking its toll. Despite the company clinging to its No.1 position in the global smartphone market in the first half of 2022 — largely because of its strong performance in China — Huawei’s global market share dropped to 16% in August, from 21% in April, according to the latest Monthly Market Report by Counterpoint Research. In comparison, its closest competitor, Samsung, has jumped from 20% to 22%. Not only has this seen Huawei drop to second in global rankings, it’s also created a 6% gap between first and second place.

Continue reading...