Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei‘s Consumer Business Group, wants the company’s next smartphones to offer a DSLR-like camera experience, the entrepreneur said on the sidelines of last week’s Consumer Electronics Show 2018. In an interview with Android Authority, Mr. Yu highlighted imaging capabilities as one of the two key areas in the handset space that are likely to see significant improvements in the near term, with artificial intelligence applications being the second one. His DSLR references specifically pertained to the zoom features and focal lengths of contemporary lenses, indicating the Chinese original equipment manufacturer is likely to continue collaborating with Carl Zeiss on the imaging front and keep implementing the German firm’s technologies into its future offerings.
The recently launched Mate 10 lineup places a large emphasis on both AI services and camera performance, with Mr. Yu’s recent remarks describing that focus as the blueprint for the tech giant’s next premium mobile devices. Huawei believes advanced AI apps and cutting-edge phone cameras boast a global appeal even if most other aspects of smartphones such as large displays and dual-SIM capabilities aren’t as widely popular in all parts of the world. The effort to turn the Mate 10 series into a universally attractive product family capable of competing on an international level was partially prompted by the fact that Huawei intended to release it in the United States through AT&T, marking its major entry point into the stateside market. The deal ended up falling through after political pressure from some of Washington’s intelligence committees, according to recent reports. Mr. Yu’s CES 2018 appearance saw him express disappointed with that development, calling it a major loss for consumers, yet the company’s recently established product design strategy won’t change moving forward, the CEO suggested. In line with that claim, latest rumors suggest at least one successor to the 2017 P10 lineup advertised as the P20 will have a triple-camera setup on its rear plate.
While the subject of mobile software wasn’t specifically touched upon during the interview, Huawei is also said to be prioritizing this aspect of smartphone development in order to fuel its global ambitions. Mr. Yu reportedly called one previous iteration of the firm’s EMUI “stupid,” referring to some unspecified changes made to the Android-based OS. Huawei is now working on making the firmware more appealing to audiences in the West, specifically targeting consumers who are used to an Android experience that heavily relies on Google’s apps such as the Play Store, most of which are banned in the OEM’s home country of China.