Huawei is adamant not to sell its phone division, but it’s not going to be easy. The business is planning for challenging times ahead. Nikkei notes that its product suppliers have been told by the telecommunications giant that this year it will create far fewer phones than it did in 2020.
For 70-80 million for the whole year, Huawei will reportedly order enough components. That’s a decline of 60% from the 189 million units it delivered last year, which was also a substantial decrease from the 240 million phones sold in 2019.
The mix of goods will also be affected, skewing away from the high end. The explanation is that Huawei is unable to source the requisite components to create 5G phones, so it will have to concentrate on 4G devices. In 2021, that doesn’t mean no 5G phones, but for the upcoming Huawei P50, we are already hearing about supply problems.
According to some manufacturers, this can lead to an even bigger reduction in the total number of handsets made, down to 50 million. Honor has wide access to vital components, so it can expand to overshadow its former parent company, but at the end of the quarter we’ll get a clearer picture.
