Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, hopes that Honor will become Huawei’s strongest global competitor and even surpass its former parent company, which will strongly motivate Huawei in the future.
He also added that Huawei and Honor should no longer be linked. They now conduct their business separately, complying with international rules to achieve their respective goals.
Explaining the reason for the sale of Honor, Ren said that the sanctions imposed by the United States threatened to take away jobs for a huge number of people, and not only Huawei employees, but also partner companies from 170 countries were affected in one way or another.
In addition, he added that Honor will have to solve many problems in order to succeed, and encouraged employees of the new Honor to learn from companies in the UK, US, EU, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Honor was formed as a sub-brand of Huawei in 2013 and has since then become one of the world’s leading smartphone brands, selling over 70 million devices annually. Honor accounted for 28% of Huawei’s total shipments in the first half of 2020, according to IDC.
Huawei announced the sale of Honor earlier this month, receiving from the deal, according to unconfirmed reports, about $15 billion.
Gizchina News of the week
Future Honor phones may come pre-installed with Google services
The Chinese company Huawei has confirmed rumors about the sale of the Honor brand. According to the deal, Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology became the main owner, which received 98.6% of the shares. The appearance of information about the sale of Honor caused concern among the owners of the devices of the Chinese manufacturer. But the company quickly reassured everyone.
Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology will maintain the supplier ecosystem. Approximately 7,000 people from Huawei will move to new jobs. Ordinary users will not feel any special changes. All accounts will continue to operate. Magic UI software updates will also be coming out.
The company said that customers would have no problem with after-sales service. They will be able to enjoy all services as before, but new products will be serviced through Honor’s own service system.
One of the main questions concerns Google Mobile Services. Since May 2019, Huawei has been under sanctions and cannot release smartphones with new hardware and Google services.
The company will not own any shares of Honor and will not participate in decision-making. In this regard, there is a possibility that in the future we will be able to see Honor smartphones with pre-installed Google services.
I can imagine a lot of Huawei fans leaving for Honor, if most specifications are met or exceeding Huawei phones – especially with GMS.