Only a few short years ago, Huawei was one of the world’s best smartphone manufacturers, but the increasing trade sanctions by the United States have taken a toll on the company. Huawei sold its Honor subdivision late last year to save the budget mark from the same sanctions, and according to a recent interview with Honor’s CEO, the move seems to be working.
Honor CEO George Zhao Ming told the South China Morning Post that the company was doing well after splitting from Huawei. “When the Honor team left Huawei, we received so many blessings and support from it that we had very few restrictions on our development and opportunities,” he said. “We are certainly already prepared for this challenge. Without supply constraints, Honor holds extraordinary advantages in conquering the middle and high markets in China.”
Last week, Honor announced that it has renewed partnerships with key component vendors, including Qualcomm and Intel. This is something that Huawei has been largely blocked against, although the company may start buying 4G-only Qualcomm chips in November. Earlier this month, Huawei announced a new phone using chips from MediaTek, which is located in Taiwan.
Honor plans to sell higher-end cell phones and expand to more markets in Europe and Latin America. However, Honor still needs to reach a new agreement with Google before it can successfully sell devices outside of China – most people are not interested in an Android phone without Play Services.
