Huawei Sets its Sights on a Worldwide Smartphone Resurgence

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Huawei is looking to make a comeback in the global smartphone market. The company recently launched three new devices under the Mate 60 Series in China. Huawei has used an in-house developed Kirin 9000S processor in the Mate 60 Series, which comes with 5G connectivity.

The sanctions imposed on Huawei by the US in 2019 restricted the company from using the technology needed to develop its Kirin processors. However, Huawei has now figured out a way to make its own Kirin processors in China, without being affected by the US sanctions.

What Had Happened To Huawei?

Huawei was the second biggest smartphone brand in the world in 2019, with a market share of 18%, just behind Samsung’s 21% share. Huawei was even ahead of Apple, as it sold 240 million devices each year, compared to Apple’s 191 million shipments in the same year.

However, in 2019, the US Government alleged that Huawei’s devices posed a major security threat to the world. According to the report, Huawei devices were vulnerable to certain exploits that could be used by the company to steal data from users. As a result, the US Government imposed sanctions on Huawei, preventing any US-based company from doing business deals with Huawei.

This meant that Huawei’s access to technology from Qualcomm, Google, and Xilinx was cut off overnight. The company could no longer use Google’s Android Operating System and Qualcomm’s Network Modems, which are two major components required for Huawei devices. Without the support from these three players, Huawei could potentially no longer produce phones for the global markets.

Since then, Huawei’s market share in the global smartphone industry has dwindled from 18% to just 3%, with a large portion coming directly from China. Huawei has almost been non-existent in the global markets since 2020.

Huawei To Soon Make a Comeback in Global Smartphone Markets

Huawei recently launched the Mate 60 Series in China, featuring an in-house developed processor, the Kirin 9000S. However, Huawei is still banned from using TSMC foundries to develop its chips. Therefore, Huawei has partnered with SMIC, a Shanghai-based semiconductor manufacturer in China, to develop the Kirin 9000S chipset.

Although Huawei has not provided specific details about the new processor, a report from TechInsights states that the Kirin 9000S is engineered on a 7nm architecture by SMIC. The chipset is very similar to the Kirin 9000 processor, which was the last processor developed by the Huawei-TSMC partnership before the sanctions came into effect.