We’ve already seen plenty of rumors and renders of the upcoming Huawei P50 series and today we have our first live look at the vanilla P50. The images come courtesy of reliable tipster DigitalChatStation who shared them on his Weibo account.
Huawei P50 (source: DigitalChatStation)
We can see the display which is rumored to measure in at 6.3-inches, will sport a much smaller centered punch hole cutout this time around instead of the pill shaped one on the P40. More importantly, we can see the huge camera cutout on the back composed of two large circles which should house 4 camera sensors in total.
Huawei P50 description
Thhe P50 series is rumored to debut with Sony’s 1-inch IMX 800 sensor which would be the largest camera on a phone to date. The remaining modules are expected to fit an ultrawide and telephoto lens as well as a 3D ToF cam.
A second leak from blogger Technology Yu provides an even better look at the P50’s rear cameras giving us a look at all four sensors.
Both new leaks also detail Harmony OS logo which further reinstates Huawei’s possible switch from Android.
The Huawei P50 series (P50, P50 Pro and P50 Pro+) is expected to launch around May-June in white, black, blue and beige colors.
Huawei is losing another friend in Europe, if press reports that it has been shown the door by Italy’s TIM prove to be correct.
The Italian incumbent is squeezing Huawei out of its 5G RAN contract, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing the usual unnamed sources and crediting Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore as the first to break the news.
TIM has informed the Chinese vendor by letter that it intends to call off the equipment supply contract, the newswire said. Neither TIM nor Huawei passed comment.
Huawei’s involvement in TIM’s 5G rollout has been precarious for some time. It was left out of the telco’s tender for 5G core equipment in both Italy and Brazil last summer, again according toReuters’sources. TIM initially involved it in the RAN portion of the network, intending to split the contract between Huawei and Ericsson, but late last year added Nokia into the mix, apparently diluting Huawei’s share. Now it seems Huawei is to be left out in the cold entirely, with Ericsson and Nokia sharing the spoils.
One of Reuters’ sources said that TIM’s decision follows a review of its supply policy, including a cost and benefit analysis, which actually doesn’t tell us very much at all. And it is logical to speculate that the benefit analysis may well have included the fact that Ericsson and Nokia do not come with a heavy national security threat cloud over their heads.
There has been talk of the Italian government formally banning Huawei, or Chinese vendors in general, from the 5G market, much like the UK has done, but to date nothing has come of it. However, the state last year extended its so-called golden power regime and as such has the right to intervene in deals with non-EU vendors covering the acquisition of goods or services related to 5G technology. However you dress it up, that doesn’t look good for Huawei and its domestic rivals.
TIM, meanwhile, has thrown its hat into the Open RAN ring, a move that will doubtless find favour with Palazzo Chigi.
It trumpeted a small deployment in Faenza, a city of around 60,000 people in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, highlighting its supplier diversification efforts in particular. This 4G deployment comprised software from US-based JMA Wireless and radio units provided by Microelectronics Technology (MTI) of Taiwan. “Going forward, this venture will also extend to 5G solutions,” TIM said.
Perhaps Huawei is not the only one starting to feel left out in Italy.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies is in talks to take control of a small domestic automaker's electric vehicle unit, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, a move that would be a strategic shift for the world's largest telecom equipment maker.
A company spokesman denied such a step, however.
Huawei, which has been battered by U.S. sanctions, is in talks with Chongqing Sokon to acquire a controlling stake in the latter's Chongqing Jinkang New Energy Automobile, said the sources.
The move will allow Huawei to make intelligent cars bearing its own nameplate, they added. Jinkang counts U.S. EV brand Seres, formerly known as SF Motors, as its main asset.
It would also provide the first evidence that Huawei is looking to go beyond just offering auto operating systems and have an end-to-end presence in the EV business.
However, the Huawei spokesman said, "Huawei is not making cars," and added that it was not looking to acquire controlling stakes, although without specifying where.
Sokon did not respond to requests for comment.
The push into smart cars, if finalised, would signal a major shift in business focus for Huawei after two years of U.S. sanctions that have cut its access to key supply chains, forcing it to sell a part of its smartphone business.
Underscoring the shift, the company's rotating chairman Eric Xu announced pacts with three state-owned Chinese carmakers, including BAIC Group, to supply "Huawei Inside", a smart vehicle operating system, at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this month.
Huawei's foray into EVs comes as technology firms such as Xiaomi Corp have been stepping up efforts in the world's biggest market for such vehicles, as Beijing heavily promotes greener vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.
"As individual consumer demand for smart EVs has been picking up notably since mid-last year, the track is now clear and solid in front of the tech giants," said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.
"Despite of their years of success and experience in smartphone markets, it will still take a few years for them to build a car brand acceptable in the EV sector."
As part of the deal, Huawei also plans to buy an undetermined stake in privately-owed Chongqing Sokon Holdings, the biggest shareholder of Shanghai-listed Sokon, said one of the sources.
Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business group who led the company to become one of the world's largest smartphone makers and has recently shifted his focus to EVs, is leading the talks with Sokon, said the two people.
The telecom giant looks to finalise the deal as soon as July, said the other source.
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Huawei is also seeking to control the EV brand ArcFox of BAIC's BluePark New Energy Technology, which recently launched its Alpha S model equipped with the "Huawei Inside" system, said the two people and another person with direct knowledge.
But BAIC is more keen to have Huawei just as a minority shareholder in ArcFox, they added.
A BAIC representative referred the query to BluePark which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All the sources declined to be named.
In February, Reuters reported that Huawei plans to make EVs under its own brand and could launch some models this year.
Sales of new energy vehicles, including pure battery electric vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, are expected to make up 20% of China's overall annual auto sales by 2025.
For months, Huawei has been deeply involved in the operation and manufacturing of the little-known Sokon and its loss-making Seres unit.
Under the tie-up, Seres's first model, "Huawei Smart Selection" SF5, debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show and received over 3,000 orders within two days after the pre-sale started last week, according to Seres.
Huawei is selling SF5 vehicles in its stores across China including its online store VMall.com.
The company aims to launch the first intelligent car under its own brand for mass production at the earliest by the end of this year, said one of them.
Huawei has high expectations for the model, which is under development based on the Seres SF5, but the existing supply chain of Sokon is struggling to meet such expectations, said the same person.
"The supply chain for the auto industry is very long and complicated," said the person. "Huawei does have its strength in software and platform but its ideas can't be realized without solid technology improvements in the supply chain."
(Reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Zhang Yan in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Yilei Sun and David Kirton; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Ultimately, some of these decisions are out of Huawei’s hands. For instance, Huawei reiterated its desire to keep Google apps on its handsets last year, but the U.S. bans remain and they will prevent users from downloading Google apps or Facebook-owned services directly onto Harmony phones. This is not an issue in China, where Google and Facebook are already blocked, but it does matter for Huawei’s international markets and other international smartphone brands.
Huawei’s smartphone rivals in China are quickly divvying up the market share it has lost over the past year.
Indeed, 92.4 million units of smartphones were shipped in China during the first quarter, with Vivo claiming the crown with a 23% share and its sister company Oppo following closely behind with 22%, according to market research firm Canalys. Huawei, of which smartphone sales took a hit after U.S. sanctions cut key chip parts off its supply chain, came in third at 16%. Xiaomi and Apple took the fourth and fifth spot, respectively.
All major smartphone brands but Huawei saw a jump in their market share in China from Q1 2020. Apple’s net sales in Greater China nearly doubled year-over-year to $17.7 billion in the three months ended March, a quarter of all-time record revenue for the American giant, according to its latest financial results.
“We’ve been especially pleased by the customer response in China to the iPhone 12 family,” said Tim Cook during an earnings call this week. “You have to remember that China entered the shutdown phase earlier in Q2 of last year than other countries. And so they were relatively more affected in that quarter, and that has to be taken into account as you look at the results.”
This quarter is also the first time China’s smartphone market has grown in four years, with a growth rate of 27%, according to Canalys.
“Leading vendors are racing to the top of the market, and there was an unusually high number of smartphone launches this quarter compared with Q1 2020 or even Q4 2020,” said Canalys analyst Amber Liu.
“Huawei’s sanctions and Honor’s divestiture have been hallmarks of this new market growth, as consumers and channels become more open to alternative brands.”
Perhaps no other US company has been hurt as badly by US sanctions against Huawei as NeoPhotonics. A specialist in advanced optical components, it previously counted the Chinese equipment giant as its biggest customer by far.
This time last year, before export restrictions had been tightened, NeoPhotonics owed more than half its first-quarter revenues to Huawei. A year later, the figure has crashed to just 1%.
This would be nothing short of disastrous for many companies, a threat to their very survival. And the situation at NeoPhotonics is not exactly pretty.
After reporting a $6.3 million net profit a year ago, it has racked up a $10.7 million loss for the first quarter of 2021. Back in October, just weeks after new sanctions took effect, the 1,200-employee company warned that a restructuring prompted by US moves against Huawei would cost $12.1 million.
The wonder is that NeoPhotonics is not doing worse. Despite the near complete disappearance of Huawei as a customer, the sales drop for the first quarter was just 37%, to $60.9 million.
Spending by other customers has filled part of the Huawei void. And management expects it to continue. This year, it is guiding for revenue growth excluding Huawei of between 25% and 35%.
If NeoPhotonics can achieve the midpoint of that range, it will limit the full-year revenue decline to 22%, judging by numbers published in its 2020 annual report.
Investors have been relatively sanguine. The company's share price fell 6% yesterday, to $11.20, after the publication of first-quarter results, but it is still 188% higher than it was in May 2019, when stakeholders were in a panic about Donald Trump's campaign against Huawei and unsure of the full impact it would have.
Good optics
Demand for the company's state-of-the-art technology is strong. Sales of products that can support data rates of at least 400G rose 134% year-on-year, to $31.4 million, accounting for 52% of the total.
Most of the world's big equipment makers are customers, including Ciena, Cisco, Fujitsu, Infinera, NEC, Nokia and ZTE. And despite its recent financial difficulties, NeoPhotonics has pumped extra money into research and development to maintain competitiveness. Spending was up a tenth in the first quarter, to about $13.1 million.
There are challenges besides the loss of Huawei business, though. NeoPhotonics has not been immune to the effects of the semiconductor supply crunch that has received so much recent attention.
"Component shortages are handicapping its ability to ship 400G+ higher-speed products," said Fahad Najam, an equity analyst with MKM Partners, in a research note. Those shortages, he said, "are driving low-single-digit millions of headwinds" to guidance for the second quarter.
NeoPhotonics also complained about weak demand in both China and the US for some of its other products.
"The bigger factor absolutely is supply, but there is also some softness in the market that we are seeing in the first half in the US, after the large spend on spectrum, and in China, where it's looking like the 5G rollout has slowed down a little bit," said Elizabeth Eby, the chief financial officer, on a call about results with analysts.
The supply issue is unlikely to be a long-term problem, however. "The company expects substantial revenue growth in 3Q21 and says it has good visibility," wrote Michael Genovese, an equity analyst with Westpark Capital, in a research note issued today. "It believes it will make up the 400+G product revenues that are slipping out of 2Q21 due to the components constraints."
Of greater concern is that worsening relations between China and the US eventually cut NeoPhotonics off from other Chinese customers, besides Huawei.
ZTE remains off the US Entity List for now. But Fiberhome, a lesser-known Chinese vendor, was added to it in May last year. Its listing could be a further pain point, acknowledged NeoPhotonics in this week's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ultimately, NeoPhotonics could be a victim of China's push for technology independence from the US.
"Insourcing in China is not new and certainly with the US-China trade tension, it's heightened," said CEO Timothy Jenks. Sales of older products have suffered partly because some Chinese customers have turned to local partners instead, he told analysts.
Right now, the company can justifiably claim to be ahead of its Chinese rivals on the development of cutting-edge technology.
"What we are working on is things that are 400G and above where, in fact, we don't believe that they really have the alternative of using domestic suppliers in China for a lot of those products," said Jenks. Sooner or later, that seems likely to change.
MILAN (Reuters) – Telecom Italia is looking to cancel a contract with Huawei for supplying equipment to build part of the telecom firm’s 5G network in Italy, three sources close to the matter said on Thursday.
Losing 5G work from Telecom Italia, one of Huawei’s biggest clients in Europe, would be a blow to the Chinese technology giant, which has already lost some business to rivals Nokia and Ericsson.
The United States has been pressuring countries to ban Huawei equipment, citing security risks. Huawei has vehemently denied posing a security risk. Only Britain and Sweden have so far banned the company’s equipment in Europe.
Telecom Italia has sent a letter informing Huawei of its intention to call off the contract, one of the sources said. Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore first reported the letter.
Telecom Italia and Huawei declined to comment.
The Italian company had initially planned to give the contract to Huawei and Ericsson, but later brought in Nokia to share the contract among the three companies, sources told Reuters last December.
Now, the entire contract will be split between Ericsson and Nokia, two of the sources said.
Italy has not imposed an outright ban on Huawei, but under current legislation it can impose strict conditions on 5G deals involving non EU vendors.
Telecom Italia’s move follows a review of its supply policy, including a cost and benefit analysis, one of the sources said.
The company had already ruled out Huawei from the core of its 5G network, where sensitive data are processed, by not inviting the Chinese company to a tender last year.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm. Editing by Mark Potter)
As part of the Adweek Sustainability Playbook, SVP of Public Affairs at Huawei Technologies USA, Joy Tan, shares the significant role collaboration and technology advancements play in driving meaningful progress and lasting change.
A Huawei logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China February 23, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
Smartphone shipments at China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL), once the world's biggest smartphone maker, halved in the first quarter in China, as U.S. sanctions choked its supply chain even as the overall smartphone market rebounded.
China shipments fell to 14.9 million handsets in the quarter ended March from 30.1 million in the same period last year, according to research firm Canalys. Outside China, Huawei shipped 3.7 million units.
"The torch was passed to Vivo and Oppo, which capitalized most on Huawei woes domestically," Counterpoint analyst Yang Wang said. "It's been a tough year for Huawei and we don't see any let up soon."
Its market share slumped to 16% from 41% a year ago, while Vivo and Oppo saw their shipments grow 79% and 65%, respectively. Vivo shipped 21.6 million units in the first quarter, while Oppo shipped 20.6 million.
Huawei was put on a blacklist by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 that barred the company from importing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors.
The ban put Huawei's once lucrative handset business under pressure, prompting the sale of its Honor budget smartphone unit in November.
Huawei said on Wednesday its first-quarter revenue fell 16.5%. The company, which is the world's largest telecom equipment maker, is seeking a strategic shift and is in talks to take control of a small Chinese automaker's electric vehicle unit, sources told Reuters. read more
China's overall market for smartphones has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with shipments increasing 24% from the first quarter a year ago when the pandemic was peaking in the country.
Xiaomi Corp's(1810.HK) shipments in China rose 75% to 13.5 million units, while Apple Inc's(AAPL.O) increased 49% to 12 million, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 12 series, the company's first 5G handset.
MILAN (Reuters) – Telecom Italia is looking to cancel a contract with Huawei for supplying equipment to build part of the telecom firm’s 5G network in Italy, three sources close to the matter said on Thursday.
Losing 5G work from Telecom Italia, one of Huawei’s biggest clients in Europe, would be a blow to the Chinese technology giant, which has already lost some business to rivals Nokia and Ericsson.
The United States has been pressuring countries to ban Huawei equipment, citing security risks. Huawei has vehemently denied posing a security risk. Only Britain and Sweden have so far banned the company’s equipment in Europe.
Telecom Italia has sent a letter informing Huawei of its intention to call off the contract, one of the sources said. Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore first reported the letter.
Telecom Italia and Huawei declined to comment.
The Italian company had initially planned to give the contract to Huawei and Ericsson, but later brought in Nokia to share the contract among the three companies, sources told Reuters last December.
Now, the entire contract will be split between Ericsson and Nokia, two of the sources said.
Italy has not imposed an outright ban on Huawei, but under current legislation it can impose strict conditions on 5G deals involving non EU vendors.
Telecom Italia’s move follows a review of its supply policy, including a cost and benefit analysis, one of the sources said.
The company had already ruled out Huawei from the core of its 5G network, where sensitive data are processed, by not inviting the Chinese company to a tender last year.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina in Milan and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm. Editing by Mark Potter)
PLANO, Texas, April 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, May 5, Joy Tan, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Huawei Technologies USA will join a growing list of global policy, business and financial leaders at the Financial Times' third edition of The Global Boardroom. The digital conference taking place from May 4-6, will discuss the practical steps governments, businesses and financiers can take to build a resilient, sustainable recovery, more than a year into a crisis that has crippled the global economy.
Tan will participate in the panel session titled, "The US Digital Divide: Will the Pandemic be a Catalyst for Change?" which begins at 5 p.m. ET on May 5, and will explain the digital divide in the U.S. and explore ways to close it. Tan will join Kathryn de Wit, Project Director of the Broadband Access Initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts and Gary Michelson, Founder and Co-chair of the Michelson 20MM Foundation to address policy form, realistic connectivity targets and corporations' role in bridging the digital divide. The session will be moderated by Hannah Murphy, Tech Correspondent at the Financial Times.
In early 2020, the Federal Communications Commission estimated that 21.3 million Americans, or 6.5% of the population, did not have broadband access. While the pandemic has accelerated the digitization of customer interactions by up to three years, many still lack access to connectivity that would allow them to experience this progress. The pandemic has deepened this digital divide, but it could also become a catalyst for providing reliable, fast and affordable internet to all. The Biden administration has stipulated universal broadband access in future legislation, but what does this mean in practice?
Since its inception in 1987, Huawei has been working tirelessly to close the digital divide, thereby creating a fully connected global community. By focusing on technology, applications and skills, Huawei is building the infrastructure needed to ensure no one is left behind in the digital age.
For more information and to register for "The US Digital Divide: Will the Pandemic be a Catalyst for Change?" visit: https://bit.ly/2QxKmjK
About Huawei Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
Huawei's end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes.
At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. We have more than 188,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.
For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, once the world’s biggest smartphone maker, saw its phone shipments to retailers and other sellers within China plunge by half in the first quarter, as U.S. sanctions on its supply chain crimped expansion even as the overall smartphone market rebounded.
The company shipped a total of 14.9 million handsets within China in the quarter ending in March, down from 30.1 million in the same period last year, according to research firm Canalys.
Its market share also dropped to 16% from 41% a year ago, becoming the third largest after fellow Chinese brands Vivo and Oppo.
Vivo and Oppo saw their shipments grow 79% and 65% respectively, as they gained market share from Huawei. Vivo shipped 21.6 million units in the first quarter, while Oppo shipped 20.6 million.
Huawei was put on a blacklist by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 that barred the company from importing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors.
The ban put Huawei’s once lucrative handset business under immense pressure, prompting the sale of its Honor budget smartphone unit to a group of agents and dealers in November.
Huawei said on Wednesday its first-quarter revenue fell 16.5%, hurt by a dip in smartphone sales.
China’s overall market for smartphones has rebounded back to pre-pandemic levels, with overall shipments increasing 24% from the first quarter a year ago, when the pandemic was peaking in the country.
Xiaomi Corp also grew shipments 75% to 13.5 million units, while Apple Inc increased by 49% to 12 million units thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 12 series, the company’s first 5G handset.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies is in talks to take control of a small domestic automaker’s electric vehicle unit, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, in what is seen as a strategic shift for the world’s largest telecom equipment maker.
Huawei, which has been battered by U.S. sanctions, is in talks with Chongqing Sokon to acquire a controlling stake in the latter’s Chongqing Jinkang New Energy Automobile, said the sources.
The move will allow Huawei to make intelligent cars bearing its own nameplate, they added. Jinkang counts U.S. EV brand Seres, formerly known as SF Motors, as its main asset.
It would also provide the first evidence that Huawei is looking to go beyond just offering auto operating systems and have an end-to-end presence in the EV business.
Huawei and Sokon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The push into smart cars, if finalised, would signal a major shift in business focus for Huawei after two years of U.S. sanctions that have cut its access to key supply chains, forcing it to sell a part of its smartphone business.
Underscoring the shift, the company’s rotating chairman Eric Xu announced pacts with three state-owned Chinese carmakers, including BAIC Group, to supply “Huawei Inside”, a smart vehicle operating system, at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this month.
Huawei’s foray into EVs comes as technology firms such as Xiaomi Corp have been stepping up efforts in the world’s biggest market for such vehicles, as Beijing heavily promotes greener vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.
As part of the deal, Huawei also plans to buy an undetermined stake in privately-owed Chongqing Sokon Holdings, the biggest shareholder of Shanghai-listed Sokon, said one of the sources.
Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group who led the company to become one of the world’s largest smartphone makers and has recently shifted his focus to EVs, is leading the talks with Sokon, said the two people.
The telecom giant looks to finalise the deal as soon as July, said the other source.
MASS PRODUCTION
Huawei is also seeking to control the EV brand ArcFox of BAIC’s BluePark New Energy Technology, which recently launched its Alpha S model equipped with the “Huawei Inside” system, said the two people and another person with direct knowledge.
But BAIC is more keen to have Huawei just as a minority shareholder in ArcFox, they added.
A BAIC representative referred the query to BluePark which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All the sources declined to be named.
In February, Reuters reported that Huawei plans to make EVs under its own brand and could launch some models this year.
Sales of new energy vehicles, including pure battery electric vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, are expected to make up 20% of China’s overall annual auto sales by 2025.
For months, Huawei has been deeply involved in the operation and manufacturing of the little-known Sokon and its loss-making Seres unit.
Under the tie-up, Seres’s first model, “Huawei Smart Selection” SF5, debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show and received over 3,000 orders within two days after the pre-sale started last week, according to Seres.
Huawei is selling SF5 vehicles in its stores across China including its online store VMall.com.
The company aims to launch the first intelligent car under its own brand for mass production at the earliest by the end of this year, said one of them.
Huawei has high expectations for the model, which is under development based on the Seres SF5, but the existing supply chain of Sokon is struggling to meet such expectations, said the same person.
“The supply chain for the auto industry is very long and complicated,” said the person. “Huawei does have its strength in software and platform but its ideas can’t be realized without solid technology improvements in the supply chain.”
(Reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Zhang Yan in Beijing; Additional reporting by Yilei Sun and David Kirton; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Qualcomm reported quarterly revenues and profits above expectations, and said it expects to perform better during the next few months than analysts had anticipated.
Perhaps more importantly, the company said it expects to resolve shortages of key chipsets by the end of this year – and the company said that's about the same time it expects to begin gaining business from the troubles dragging at Huawei's smartphone operation.
"It's going to get better at the end of the year," said incoming Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon during the company's quarterly earnings call Wednesday. He said he expects to see a "material improvement in [chipset] supply by end of 2021."
That's important considering Qualcomm is one of the world's biggest suppliers for mobile phone chipsets. Such products are among the many electronics that have been impacted by a global chipset shortage. Although some suppliers in the industry have suggested that the shortages might not affect the mobile phone industry directly, Qualcomm's CFO offered a relatively worrisome picture of the current situation.
Qualcomm's Akash Palkhiwala said the shortages are affecting "all of our vectors," including products for phones, IoT devices and automobiles. He declined to affix a dollar figure to the situation, but said it's "a very significant number" and that Qualcomm's most recent quarter would have been "much better off" without the shortages.
However, Qualcomm's results and outlook overshadowed any worries investors may have had about the shortages. Indeed, Qualcomm said it now expects to reap up to $10 billion in additional revenues in the phone industry due to the troubles of China's Huawei. The handset maker was one of the world's largest suppliers of mobile phones before the US government cut into its business; Huawei's resulting retreat from the phone industry is pushing more business into Qualcomm's arms.
"It's going to be one of the largest growth drivers for our mobile business," Amon said of the developments in Huawei's phone business.
Overall, Qualcomm reported a 52% year-over-year increase in its revenues and a massive jump in its net income, to $1.8 billion. The company also issued a forecast for its coming quarter that was higher than most analysts expected.
Warning that a challenging year lies ahead, a defiant Huawei has said its business remains resilient despite showing results for the first quarter of 2021 where revenues have plummeted 16.5% year-on-year, proving the clear effect of the bans on use of its technology in the national infrastructures of countries around the world.
For the first quarter ended 31 March 2021, the communications technology giant generated CNY152.2bn in revenue. Yet, while significantly down overall compared with the same time in 2020, the company’s network business is said to have maintained steady growth, while consumer business revenue declined, in part as a result of selling the Honor smart device brand in November 2020.
Huawei’s net profit margin was up 3.8 percentage points year-on-year at 11.1%, the result, said the company, of its ongoing efforts to improve quality of operations and management efficiency, as well as a patent royalty income of US$600m.
Even though it insisted the Q1 results were in line with those forecast and that 2021 would be the year its future development strategy would begin to take shape, it conceded that it would be another challenging year.
“We thank our customers and partners for their ongoing trust,” said Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating chairman. “No matter what challenges come our way, we will continue to maintain our business resilience. Not just to survive but do so sustainably. As always, we will remain focused on the needs of our customers and keep delivering practical business value.”
Heading these challenges is the knock-on effect of the bans of Huawei following the decision by the then-Trump US government on 15 May 2020 to extend its restrictions on the sale of hardware and software to so-called “high-risk” suppliers such as Huawei, leading to the company being unable to purchase equipment from longstanding suppliers.
In July 2020, the UK government committed to a timetable for the removal of Huawei equipment from the country’s growing 5G communications infrastructure by 2027 – effectively a huge U-turn on the decision it took only in January 2020 to restrict Huawei’s presence to just the radio access network element of 5G setups.
The call was made after the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) noted that the US move had created uncertainly around the Huawei supply chain, and that the UK could no longer be confident it would be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment.
Undeterred, Huawei said that going forward it was driving efforts to fully unleash the value of 5G and that it would help carriers around the world roll out their 5G networks, meeting the demands of consumers and industries alike, while boosting its own delivery efficiency. Indeed, in February 2021, the company predicted a booming 5G market was set to rise in the next 12 months and the company revealed the first use case for its 5G business suite in industrial mobile.
The other key part of the Huawei forward strategy was to improve its software engineering capabilities and ramp up investment in the software sector to gradually increase the proportion of software and services in its total revenue mix. Just weeks ago, the firm revealed a major pivot to maximise its software capabilities and provide components for intelligent vehicles.
“As always, we remain committed to technological innovation and investing heavily in R&D as we work to address supply continuity challenges caused by restrictions in the market,” added Xu. “We will continue making breakthroughs in basic science and pushing the frontiers of technology.”
The Harmony OS 2.0 is Huawei’s in-house platform that should be available by June to customers. It is already in the final stages of development, and we now have the first video, showing how the OS looks like on a Huawei Mate X2. Check it out:
At first the UI has a lot of similarities to Android, especially around the notification bar, the icon layout and design. Swiping down anywhere on the home screen brings the search engine of the phone, and we expect Petal Search to be incorporated for the global devices.
The control center can be pulled down from the top right corner, while notifications come with the same gesture from the opposing side.
The apps demoed are Huawei’s understanding of Calendar and Notes, and it appears the new OS will have a different kind of widgets that will allow you to use a gesture to provide more info without opening them.
What we also don’t know is whether these gestures are reserved for tablets and foldable devices or we will have three types of downward swipes even on smartphones with smaller screens. There are many unknowns but there’s a hope we’ll get more answers in the next month or so leading up to the launch.
Residents wearing face masks pass by a Huawei electronics store in Beijing on Monday, April 12, 2021. Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei said Wednesday first-quarter revenue fell after it sold its lower-priced Honor smartphone brand, but profitability improved.
FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2020, file photo, an employee wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus stands inside a Huawei flagship store in Beijing. Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei said Wednesday, April 28, 2021, that first-quarter revenue fell following the sale of its lower-price Honor smartphone brand but profitability improved.
By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer
BEIJING (AP) — Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei said Wednesday first-quarter revenue fell after it sold its lower-priced Honor smartphone brand, but profitability improved.
Sales declined 16.5% from a year earlier to 152.2 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) due in part to lower revenue for its consumer unit, the company said. It gave no earnings but said its profit margin improved by 3.8 percentage points to 11.1%.
Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand, is struggling to hold onto its global market share following U.S. sanctions that devastated its smartphone sales, once among the world’s highest. The company also is the biggest maker of network gear used by phone and internet carriers.
Washington says the company is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation Huawei denies.
The sanctions bar access to U.S. processor chips and services including Google’s music and other popular apps. Huawei designs its own chips, but manufacturers are barred from using U.S. technology required to produce them.
Honor was sold in November in hopes of reviving sales by separating it from the sanctions on the parent company. Wednesday's announcement gave no details of sales by network gear, consumer and other business lines.
“2021 will be another challenging year for us, but it’s also the year that our future development strategy will begin to take shape,” Eric Xu, one of three executives who take turns as Huawei chairman, said in a statement.
Huawei has responded by emphasizing its sales in China and for electric and self-driving cars, industrial networks and other technology that is less vulnerable to U.S. pressure. Huawei has a stockpile of U.S. chips for high-end smartphones but executives have said those were being used up.
Wednesday's announcement gave no details of sales by its network equipment or other business lines.
Huawei, headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, says it is owned by the Chinese employees who make up half its workforce of 197,000 in 170 countries. The company began reporting financial results a decade ago to try to defuse Western security concerns.
Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, suggested in a letter to employees the company might considering having one of its business units join a stock exchange for the first time, The South China Morning Post of Hong Kong reported Wednesday.
Ren warned employees not to falsify accounting numbers, saying that might be a legal issue “if one of our businesses gradually enters the capital market in the future,” the Post reported. It said Ren gave no indication the company has such a plan. The company said it had no official statement on the report.
Ren in the past has ruled out selling shares to outsiders. He said that would distract management from serving customers and making long-range plans.
Huawei reported earlier its sales of phones, network gear and other technology rose 3.8% in 2020 over a year earlier to 891.4 billion yuan ($135.8 billion), but that growth was down from 2019’s 19.1%.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The R&D center on cloud computing and intelligence technology of Huawei, located at China-Singapore Eco-City in Tianjin Binhai new area.
Zhang Peng | LightRocket | Getty Images
LONDON — Chinese tech giant Huawei said Wednesday that its revenues dropped sharply in the first quarter as U.S. sanctions took a toll on its business.
Huawei's revenues fell 16.5% year-on-year to 152.2 billion Chinese yuan ($23.5 billion) in the three months ending March 31, according to unaudited financial results revealed by the company on Wednesday. It marks the second consecutive quarter in which Huawei's revenues declined.
This was largely down to pain in Huawei's consumer business, which includes smartphones and other devices. Huawei hasn't been able to ship its phones with Google's licensed Android operating system since the companies parted ways in 2019. Huawei's smartphone shipments plunged 41% in the fourth quarter of 2020. The company sold its Honor budget smartphone brand to a consortium of investors last year.
U.S. sanctions
In 2019, Huawei was added to a U.S. trade blacklist called the Entity List which restricts American firms from exporting technologies to certain foreign entities. And in 2020, the U.S. moved to cut Huawei off from key chip supplies it needs for its smartphones.
"2021 will be another challenging year for us, but it's also the year that our future development strategy will begin to take shape," Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating chairman, said in a statement.
"We thank our customers and partners for their ongoing trust. No matter what challenges come our way, we will continue to maintain our business resilience. Not just to survive, but do so sustainably."
Pivoting to software
Huawei said it actually managed to increase its profit margin by about 3.8 percentage points year-on-year to 11.1%. This was in part down to the $600 million Huawei received in patent royalties in the quarter.
In March, Huawei said it would begin charging smartphone makers a royalty to use its patented 5G technology. Huawei has thousands of declared 5G patent families, and the company is hoping this part of its business can provide it with a new revenue stream as other parts of its business falter.
Huawei said Wednesday that it would ramp up investment in software going forward to incorporate software and services in its revenue mix. The company has been boosting its efforts in software, including areas like cloud computing and smart cars, as U.S. sanctions hurt its hardware unit.
- CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
PLANO, Texas, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei was named to TIME's first annual TIME100 Companies, as a top disruptor advancing transformative technology that betters society. As a top company on the Fortune 500 list, the inclusion of Huawei as a TIME100 company further cements the company's reputation as an award-winning telecommunications innovator on the global stage. In the inaugural year of TIME100 Companies, the list commends organizations shifting their attention toward the positive role they can play within society. TIME recognizes the corporate innovators, pioneers, disruptors, titans and leaders who are shaping the world today, focusing on impact and relevance rather than size or scale.
Despite the unique challenges brought on by COVID-19 and U.S. sanctions in 2020, Huawei raised its net profit by 3.2% year-on-year as recently announced via its annual report. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, Huawei has been investing at least 10% of its revenue each year into R&D, with a $22 billion investment in 2020 alone. Additionally, more than half of Huawei's employees are dedicated to R&D. Furthermore, over the past 30 years, Huawei has continuously prioritized business transformation as well as process and IT implementation. As a result, the company has seen stable development, rapid growth, expansion from China to the world, and diversification from a single business to multiple business groups serving a variety of customers and industries.
"Since 100% of our company is owned by employees, our global workforce is the source of Huawei's strength and stability," said Joy Tan, SVP of Public Affairs. "With more than 190,000 employees across 170 countries, Huawei is able to continue pushing the limits of innovation and empowering our employees while staying committed to its mission to bring digital to every person, home and organization."
The fourth industrial revolution will open up new waves of innovation and economic growth through established and emerging technologies. Huawei is committed to developing and promoting these technologies, including cloud computing, 5G, and the Internet of Things, and as a result, has over 100,000 active patents and counting. Recently, Huawei shared its insights on industry trends and the applications of solutions in specific industry scenarios at the Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS), helping customers from all kinds of industries to create new value together. Huawei will continue to enable joint innovation, build open ecosystems, and achieve shared success with all types of partners, building innovative, scenario-specific solutions based on Intelligent Twins as technology architecture. Doing so, the company supports intelligent industrial upgrades and facilitates digital transformation for all industries including automotive, energy, education, healthcare and financial services. By the end of 2020, more than 700 cities and 253 Fortune 500 companies selected Huawei as their digital transformation partner.
As a TIME100 company, Huawei will continue to connect the world via invaluable and intelligent technology. Through investment in sustainable initiatives and cutting-edge solutions, Huawei will shift society toward a digital future that leaves no one behind.
About Huawei Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
Huawei's end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes.
At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. We have more than 188,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.
For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:
Founded in 2000, the University Town of Shenzhen is the only research-intensive university group in China that is approved by China's Ministry of Education and jointly managed by the local government and top universities. It fosters full-time graduate students and currently has approximately 20,000 students and faculty members.
The University Town of Shenzhen is the first academic institution in China to have built a smart science and education campus with Wi-Fi 6 networking at scale. The university based its strategy on the philosophy - "one number, one code, one network, and one screen" - creating the ideal ICT platform that efficiently shares resources and flexibly meets the unique needs of universities. This new platform, enabled by a high-quality campus network, ensures that teachers and students alike enjoy borderless services and consistently good user experience throughout the campus.
The same underlying network also contributed to the success of HDC.Cloud 2021. Thanks to its powerful performance, every participant enjoyed convenient, high-speed, and stable network experience at all times, from indoor activities with over 1000 participants to outdoor hands-on labs.
Keynote speech & summit venues: Fully wireless access and intelligent networking at scale fully meet developers' network requirements for online and offline activities.
The keynote speeches and carnival activities were held at the stadium, while multiple summits took place in a lecture hall with over 1000 seats. These on-site events were also broadcast live online, offering participants an exceptional online and offline experience.
The key to making these massive activities run smoothly is a campus network that features fully wireless coverage, ultra-broadband speeds, and intelligent application experience assurance. Huawei's CloudCampus 3.0 Solution delivers just that.
Specifically, the University Town of Shenzhen draws on Huawei's unique 3D wireless network planning tool - WLAN Planner - to quickly model wireless networks and simulate signal coverage, intuitively reflecting the real onsite environment. The end result is optimal deployment and flexible adaptation to complex environments.
Comprising the high-performance Wi-Fi network are Huawei's CloudEngine S12700E, the industry's most powerful ultra-broadband core switch, and Huawei's flagship triple-radio APs, including AirEngine 8760-X1-PRO and AirEngine 6760-X1. This new network is ideal for many scenarios, such as stadiums, lecture halls, and classrooms, offering the ultimate experience for each user, even when there are over 1000 users online all at once.
Hands-on labs: Outdoor high-speed Wi-Fi delivers superior network experience to developers.
Dozens of tents were arranged outdoors as hands-on labs, where developers could learn about cutting-edge technology first-hand and experience Huawei's open ICT capabilities in person. Huawei's CloudCampus 3.0 Solution ensured the stable and reliable network necessary for such cloud service-based capabilities.
In particular, Huawei's AirEngine Wi-Fi 6 APs with unique smart antennas deliver over 20% more coverage distance than the industry average. This capability enabled continuous wireless networking outdoors, making sure that every developer could experience the latest tech without interruptions.
Lounge area: The IoT-powered smart Library makes a difference.
The University Town of Shenzhen repurposed its library's open reading space, creating a fully wireless lounge area. During breaks, developers could browse a catalogue of over 700,000 books through the waterfall-stream electronic book borrowing system.
This was possible thanks to the Huawei AirEngine series APs, which provided full Wi-Fi 6 coverage for smart library applications. For example, the library's robots can pinpoint bookshelves and scan books using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based on the IoT network; they also use the Wi-Fi 6 network to report information of misplaced books in real time, efficiently counting available books.
O&M assurance: Intelligent O&M makes the network easier to use.
Efficient and intelligent network O&M is another key success factor for HDC.Cloud 2021. Huawei iMaster NCE-CampusInsight, a campus network analyzer, greatly helps the administrators in the Network Information Center of the University Town of Shenzhen. To elaborate, administrators can predict wireless network problems and obtain network optimization suggestions by using the big data analytics module and expert experience library. They can also quickly adjust the network, for example, performing AP load balancing, adjusting the transmit power, and optimizing channels. iMaster NCE-CampusInsight ensures the optimal application experience for developers by enabling fine-grained O&M, including application visibility, quality awareness, and fault demarcation.
"Since its founding, the University Town of Shenzhen has nurtured a vast number of high-tech innovative talents for Shenzhen's reform and development," said Sun Tao, Director of the Network Information Center, Management Office, University Town of Shenzhen. "Our smart science and education campus has already entered the 2.0 era, with digital innovation, intelligent management, and granular services in full swing. This offers high-quality campus network services and scientific research environments for campus developers, thereby empowering them with higher skills for innovation."
A U.S. judge on Monday found that Huawei did not violate a court order by sharing certain information with its chief financial officer, who is using it to help fight her extradition from Canada.
But U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn, warned Huawei lawyers: "be careful with your filings."
Lawyers for Huawei Technologies were summoned to the court in New York after U.S. prosecutors accused Huawei of improperly sharing materials the government disclosed in the criminal case against the company with chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who also is charged but considered a fugitive.
Huawei and Meng were indicted for bank fraud and other crimes, in a case that has strained ties between the United States, China and Canada. Meng was arrested in Canada on a U.S. warrant in December 2018.
Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case and Meng has said she is innocent.
The latest dispute stems from two letters. Huawei filed a 10-page letter with the Brooklyn court in February that said recent disclosures by the government undermine the fraud charges in the case.
It also sent a letter to U.S. Department of Justice officials in April that said the prosecution had produced information that directly contradicted the government's representations in the extradition case, according to filings.
Prosecutors said the letters, despite redactions, violate the court's order about sharing sensitive materials with Meng that the government turned over.
The defense is filing the letters, prosecutor Alexander Solomon told the judge, and telling Meng to "use the documents as you see fit to obstruct the extradition proceeding."
But Huawei's attorneys said neither letter breached the court's order about sensitive information, and the judge agreed.
"I don't see that there's been a violation of the protective order," Donnelly said.
Still, the judge added that she did not want to see 10-page letters filed on a Sunday night that did not seek court action.
Huawei brought the ride-hailing app Bolt on its AppGallery back in summer 2020, and today Bolt Food joined the family as well. The food delivery service is an alternative to Uber Eats, as well as a direct competitor to Takeaway, Foodpanda, and other similar platforms.
Bolt Food on AppGallery
The Bolt Food app will be initially available across Europe, where the platform is more popular. Huawei prides itself in listening to fans and consumers about which apps should appear on AppGallery, and according to a press release, there was an “unprecedented demand” with over 2,000 requests.
Users generally prefer Bolt ahead of other delivery services due to the ability to embrace Huawei’s “glocal” strategy. Unlike other takeaway competitors, Bolt Food has the advantage of ensuring its deliveries are “predictable, faster, and reliable” - something the platform learned from its ride-hailing partner.
Bolt Food is present in twenty countries across Europe and Africa, as well as forty cities. The app has already been adapted to Huawei’s newest HMS devices like the P40, Mate 40, and Mate 30 series.
The application itself is just 39.51 MB in size, and virtually everyone can install it, even users with Google Mobile Services - after all, Huawei AppGallery is free to use for everyone on Android with or without a Huawei smartphone.
