Huawei may be hurting by the US sanctions, but that’s not stopping the company from setting new records. The Chinese tech giant has already shipped 200 million smartphones in 2019, 64 days faster than it did last year. The numbers were largely driven by the success of products like the P30 and Mate 30 series, the company said through a press release on Wednesday.
Huawei, however, didn’t reveal as to how many of those 200 million smartphones were shipped outside of China. With the company’s smartphone business outside China largely looming uncertain, it is highly likely that most of them were sold within its home country. Nevertheless, it’s still a big achievement considering Huawei had just surpassed the 100 million mark in October 2016.
US trade ban hurting
From three million units in the whole year of 2010 to 200 million units in less than ten months in 2019, Huawei’s emergence as the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor has been phenomenal. However, recent developments, unfortunately, pose a serious threat to the company’s future in the global market.
In August 2019, the US government added Huawei to the entity list, effectively blocking the company from launching new smartphones with Google services. This isn’t really a big deal in China, but it’s inimical to the company’s global smartphone business.
Google services, which include Play Store, Youtube, Search, and more, are integral parts of Android smartphones outside of China. Without them, Huawei will find it difficult to sell smartphones in the global market. Of course, the company is already working on an Android alternative, named HarmonyOS. But it’ll admittedly take years in the making. So unless something changes really quickly, Huawei’s smartphone sales are highly likely to go down from here on.
Special edition Mate 30 Pro 5G announced
To celebrate the 200 million milestone, Huawei has announced that it will be launching a “Commemorative Edition” of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G soon. This limited edition handset will be available in the Chinese market from November 1, 2019. The smartphone will come with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage space. It can be purchased in Forest Green and Orange colors from the Huawei Vmall. The company didn’t share the pricing details, though.
As for the regular Mate 30 Pro 5G, prices start at CNY 6,899 (roughly $975) for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage capacity. The 8GB+512GB variant costs CNY 7,899 ($1115). The smartphone packs a quad-camera setup at the back and features a 6.53-inch Full HD+ OLED display. Under the hood is a HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G chipset. The smartphone goes on sale in China on November 1.