Recently, mainstream Chinese technology news site, ITHome, reported that on Huawei’s official online sales channels in China, the Huawei Mate 40 and Huawei Mate 40 Pro had not been restocked and has since been delisted on the company’s online stores as of June 3rd (last Friday). As unfortunate as it sounds, it seems that the Huawei Mate 40 series has been officially discontinued by Huawei as the company’s official online platforms no longer sell the devices in the country.
Currently, when searching through the Huawei smartphone products category, the official store shows that the only Huawei Mate series smartphones left for sale are the Huawei Mate Xs 2 and Huawei Mate X2 foldable flagships, and the older Huawei Mate 30 5G and Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G devices released back in 2019.
After the US trade sanctions against Huawei, the company has faced a lot of difficulties in obtaining silicon chips for its smartphones. With fewer chips for production, means fewer Huawei smartphones to sell as well. So what’s next for Huawei if they want to continue to stay relevant in the smartphone market?
Well for one, the company has already undergone a major shift in its smartphone pricing strategy. Previously pre-2019, the smartphone brand would churn out a lot of devices in the entry-level, mid-range, and flagship markets to sell globally to capture more market share in the smartphone industry. But since 2020, Huawei has gradually exited the entry-level and mid-range market, focusing only on its flagships.
Most notably, Huawei has taken a lot of risk by putting its foldable flagships like the Huawei Mate X2, Huawei Mate Xs 2 and the Huawei P50 Pocket. The foldables market for Huawei has been generating more revenue for the company compared to the conventional smartphone market. Although the cost of manufacturing foldables is higher, Huawei can mark up the selling price of its foldables significantly higher than conventional smartphones as well.
In addition, the foldable market also has less competition than for say the conventional flagship market. For example, the Huawei P50 Pro has to compete with the iPhone 13 Pro, Realme GT 2 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro, Vivo X80 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, etc. Meanwhile, the Huawei P50 Pocket only competes with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 and Motorola Razr. In turn, the company can sell more and earn more sales revenue per foldable sold than it would have otherwise sold a conventional Android flagship despite lower foldables sales volumes.
For the next 5 years, Huawei is still expected to stay in the smartphone market, but the company is expected to switch from a mainstream brand to a niche luxury smartphone brand selling innovative foldable smartphones. The brand is expected to release the Huawei P60 Pocket and Huawei Mate X3 this year as well and if you are interested in the latest technology from China, stay tuned to our coverage here at Gizmochina!
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(Source)
