Huawei was one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world just a few years ago, but the increasing trade sanctions in the United States have affected the company. Huawei sold its Honor subdivision last year to save the budget mark from the same sanctions and, according to a recent interview with Honor’s CEO, the change appears to be working.
Honor CEO George Zhao Ming told the South China Morning Post that the company is doing well after breaking up with Huawei. “When the Honor team left Huawei, we received so many blessings and support from them that we really have very few constraints on our development and opportunities,” he said. “We are definitely ready for this challenge. Without supply restrictions, Honor has exceptional advantages in capturing the medium and high standard markets in China.”
Last week, Honor announced that it had renewed partnerships with key component suppliers, including Qualcomm and Intel. This is something that Huawei has been largely blocked against, although the company may start buying Qualcomm’s 4G chips in November. Earlier this month, Huawei announced a new phone using chipsets from MediaTek, based in Taiwan.
Honor plans to start selling next-generation phones and expand to more markets in Europe and Latin America. However, Honor has yet to reach a new deal with Google before it can sell devices outside of China – most people are not interested in an Android phone without Play Services.
