Huawei’s smartphone business is currently under threat considering the numerous bans from the U.S. The company even had to sell off its Honor sub-brand although it claims that this does not affect Huawei’s business in any significant way. Nevertheless, the company does not have enough Kirin 9000 SoCs because TSMC only delivered 8.8 million units. To this end, there were reports that Huawei may have to use third-party chips for the Huawei P50 series. However, this series is a flagship series and the ban still stops Huawei from purchasing any flagship chip presently.
Although a couple of companies like AMD, Intel, TSMC, and Sony has licenses to supply Huawei, these licenses exclude any chip that relates to 5G. So, what is the way out for Huawei?
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Will Huawei P50 series arrive next year?
According to TheElec, Huawei plans to release the P50 series sometime in the first half of next year. Currently, Samsung and LG Display are preparing for the supply of their OLED screens. The Huawei P50 series is in the works no doubt. However, if the situation does not change, there may be no next-generation Mate series. According to reports, the Huawei P50 series will also use the Kirin 9000 SoCs. However, due to its insufficient units, it is difficult for Huawei to have enough chips for the P50 series.
To this end, there are speculations that Huawei will seek support from Qualcomm or MediaTek. Nevertheless, it is most unlikely that this yield any positive result.
At present, the Mate 40 series is in short supply in the Chinese market, and some models are out of stock. There are reports that the demand for Mate 40 series may exceed 10 million units this year. Given this huge demand, it is uncertain how Huawei will allocate its meager inventory of Kirin chips to the two flagship series.
According to reports, Huaweiâs P and Mate series mobile phones shipped 44 million units in 2019. The company said that due to the sanctions by the United States, its sales in 2019 decreased by 60 million units. Not surprisingly, Huaweiâs shipments may fall further this year. A few days ago, a report released by Gartner showed that in the third quarter of this year, Huawei exceeded 51.83 million units, with a market share of 14.4%, ranking second in the world. We will have to wait a few months and see how Huawei will handle the P50 series.
