Huawei is a company that has had a presence in the U.S. for quite some time, but not on a massive scale like Samsung or LG, as they have only recently started to focus more launching devices in the country. Huawei’s next device, the P9, is set for center stage tomorrow with their event to be held in London, and while Huawei has yet to mention whether or not the P9 will make a debut in the U.S. at any point, a new report from the Wall Street Journal states that Huawei will be launching a flagship smartphone in the U.S. later in the year.
The report doesn’t state what device the flagship is that Huawei is referring to, but the comment does seem to come from Huawei’s Electronic’s Chief Richard Yu. Considering tomorrow’s launch of the Huawei P9, it’s entirely possible that the device which Huawei will launch here in the country later in 2016 could be a U.S. model of the phone, but it’s also entirely possible that Huawei could have been referring to a completely different flagship model as there were no details given about the device whatsoever, and there is no mention of timing, meaning that if a U.S. flagship launches in the winter this year, the P9 will already be quite old.
While Huawei may not have as many U.S. offerings on the market, they do have phones available from within the country. You can currently pick up a U.S. model of the Huawei P8 Lite on Amazon, and they recently launched the 5X under their Honor brand earlier this year, also available on Amazon. Then of course there’s the existence of late 2015’s Nexus 6P which was a huge leap forward for Huawei. This is still not a large offer set though, and according to the report Huawei wants to be serious about the U.S. market. Releasing a flagship device within the U.S. would certainly do well to show U.S. consumers that Huawei is a brand that wants a place in their hearts, but time will tell what Huawei has to offer. At the moment, there is no way of knowing whether or not Huawei plans to launch a U.S. version of the P9, or if they have plans for an entirely different phone, but a flagship device offering from a brand like Huawei where they don’t typically offer many phones, let alone flagships, does show at least some commitment on their part.