Just last month, Huawei announced the sale of its Honor smartphone division to a consortium based in Shenzhen, China. Rumors soon surfaced that the independent company would launch a flagship phone based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. Now, more information has emerged on the topic of future cooperation.
A source close to Qualcomm indicated that Honor and the US chipmaker were already in talks to ship chipsets for upcoming Honor phones. Honor is rather optimistic about the potential results of this collaboration, at the moment both sides are close to reaching an agreement.
Honor CEO Zhao Ming has openly stated that Honor aims to become the leading smartphone brand in China’s smartphone market. This was reportedly announced during a staff meeting. A week after the announcement of the sale, Zhao Ming mentioned that Honor would start releasing other products besides smartphones.
Earlier, the President of Qualcomm said publicly that the company has already started a dialogue with Honor; and looks forward to working with the new company in various areas.
Recall that after the introduction of US sanctions against Huawei, the Chinese company lost the opportunity to use Google services and Qualcomm products.
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Huawei and Honor will occupy 4% and 2% of the smartphone market next year
A new forecast by research firm TrendForce says that independent company Honor, which no longer has anything to do with Huawei, will only be able to occupy 2% of the global smartphone market next year.
Of course, the sale of Honor will hit Huawei very hard, which is barely afloat under the pressure of US sanctions and their aftermath. If this year analysts give the company only 14% of the global smartphone market; then next year, according to the forecast, the company’s share will drop to 4%. With such results, the company will have to fight for a place in the top ten leaders, since they will definitely not be able to get into the top five.
US sanctions imposed on Huawei are limiting the company’s ability to procure required components; affecting Huawei’s ability to manufacture and market new smartphones. The sanctions were the main reason behind Huawei’s decision to sell its Honor brand.
Another Chinese company Xiaomi, according to the forecast, will significantly strengthen its position next year. TrendForce analysts make a modest forecast for Xiaomi’s share to increase from 12% to 14%. However, Xiaomi itself is much more optimistic and intends to sell from 240 to 300 million smartphones. The company wants to get ahead of Apple and possibly compete for the top spot with Samsung.