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Huawei’s latest smartphone has already received more than three million pre-orders, generating significant buzz for the Chinese tech giant just hours before it is expected to officially unveil new products Tuesday in a bid to upstage Apple’s iPhone 16.
The Shenzhen-based firm, which has been a flashpoint in an escalating tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing, is currently in the midst of a spectacular comeback having launched wildly popular models like the Mate 60 Pro and Mate X5. In August, Huawei reported double digit jumps in both revenue and profit, despite US sanctions.
Successful sales of the Mate XT tri-fold smartphone, which began pre-orders on Saturday, would be another indication of the company’s sustained resurgence.
Richard Yu, the chairman of the group’s consumer business, teased on Chinese social media on Monday that he would be introducing new products at 2:30 p.m. Beijing time the next day, while sharing a partial image of the tri-fold phone.
“It’s an epoch-making product that others have only dreamed of but couldn’t achieve,” he said previously on Weibo. “After five years of dedication and investment, we’re making science fiction a reality. Stay tuned for Huawei’s masterpiece!”
Tuesday’s product launch will come just hours after arch-rival Apple (AAPL) unveiled a slew of new products, including the iPhone 16, the first Apple smartphone purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence (AI). It’s a feature the company hopes will help convince customers to upgrade.
Amber Liu, research manager at market research firm Canalys, said Huawei’s rapid recovery “directly challenges” Apple’s performance in China, its second-largest market which accounts for over 20% of its global shipments.
It also comes after Chinese smartphone makers dominated the top five spots domestically on a quarterly basis for the first time ever, she said, pushing Apple to sixth place.
“The close timing of Huawei and Apple’s product launches signals the start of a new competitive wave in the Chinese premium market,” Liu told CNN. Key areas of competition will include high-end products, software capabilities and AI deployment, she added.
Apple said that generative AI, like ChatGPT, on its iPhone 16 would allow users to create text and images with natural-language prompts. It’s unclear whether the Mate XT includes any AI features.
Jene Park, a senior analyst at the smartphone foldables practice at Counterpoint Research, said the rumored new phone is believed to have a double folding structure and a large display size of over 10 inches.
“I think this latest attempt could bring about significant changes in the display size of book-type foldables, which currently range from seven inches to eight inches,” he said.
Analysts say the success of the launch will depend, in part, on the price of the phone, which hasn’t yet been shared. Liu believes it will carry a “substantial price” due to the high cost of manufacturing and its premium positioning.
Sales of Huawei’s flagship smartphones rose 72% in the first five months of 2024, compared to the same period a year ago, Yu said in June, underscoring the company’s ambitions to claw its way back to the top despite severe US restrictions.
US policymakers have long claimed that Huawei poses a national security risk, alleging that the Chinese government could use the company’s equipment to spy. The company repeatedly denied those allegations, but that didn’t stop some American allies — such as the UK — limiting Huawei’s role in building 5G networks.
The US ban prevented companies like Google (GOOGL) from supplying new Huawei devices with its version of Android OS. Those restrictions dealt a huge blow to the Chinese firm’s smartphone ambitions at the time, with some analysts predicting the Huawei phone would become “a brick.”
Now, the company is once again making its way back to the top. It’s also venturing into new businesses. Last year, it launched an electric sedan to take on Tesla’s Model S. And it has big ambitions in AI.
Nvidia (NVDA) earlier this year named Huawei a top competitor in a number of areas, including in the production of processors that power AI systems.
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