Huawei Technologies is planning on pushing forward its research and development of its wearables offerings that would focus on health care. The move arrives as part of its efforts to expand into new areas amid the US sanctions.
According to an SCMP report, the Chinese tech giant’s push towards this line could have it catch up with its rival Xiaomi, which is the world’s second largest wearables maker after the Cupertino based firm, Apple. At the moment, Huawei is working on three health research programmes on hypertension management, body temperature, and coronary heart disease. The company announced these initiatives earlier this month in an online event.
While it has announced that it is working on health care related wearables, it has yet to announce when we might see the integration of these new features in its offerings of smartwatches, smart bands, or even eyewear. However, the company did state that it is building a “strong barrier” to entry for other competitors in the industry. Unfortunately, a Huawei spokesperson said that the company has no further comments regarding this matter for now.
As per Jason Low, a Canalys analyst, “The whole industry is expecting [wearable] products which can really help consumers better manage their health [concerns], especially chronic diseases that both young and old people are likely to get. But there is still a long way to go because this requires a lot of R&D investment, as well as cooperation between smart hardware and technology companies.” Back in Q3 of 2020, Huawei was the world’s 3rd largest wearables maker, although, the US trade restrictions have hampered its ability to supply hardware and software components for its core smartphone and networking business operations.
The company’s CEO and Founder, Ren Zhengfei previously stated that the company must stay committed to its research and development, focus on profits and even called for decentralization for survival during this time. Currently, Huawei has over 13 research centers across the globe that work on its smart wearable designs, development of software and hardware, and are even working on health care as well.
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