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)

The post Huawei Mate 40 Series Discontinued in China, Here’s What Next for Huawei appeared first on Gizmochina.

The decline of Huawei in the smartphone market had been seen a long time coming. With the halt to the production of its own in-house HiSilicon Kirin chips and the sanctions of 5G chipsets against the company, it seemed like the company would have to exit the smartphone market sooner or later.

But in an unlikely turn of events in 2022, we could still get “Huawei designed” smartphones, but not “Huawei branded” smartphones. Today, on May 10th 2022, TD Tech, a newcomer to the smartphone business, is launching its first-ever flagship smartphone, the TD Tech M40 to the Chinese market.

If the design seems familiar to you, that is because this is literally the Huawei Mate 40, but now “TD Tech” branded with an upgraded 5G chipset and upgraded cameras. Here are the features of this new TD Tech M40 smartphone, and the pricing of the device in China.

Let’s start with the design, the TD Tech M40 is housed within an aluminium build chassis that features a premium shiny matte glass finish with a circular camera island on its back, and a 3D curved AMOLED with a left punch hole upfront. The “TD Tech” branding is also printed on the back to let you know, that this is indeed the newer model. 

The front display panel is a 6.5-inch FHD+ 60Hz AMOLED display with support for HDR 10+ content and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The device is also rated for IP53 dust and water resistance to keep your phone safe from the light drizzle in the rain.

The main upgrade here is the processor, instead of using the outdated Kirin 9000 4G processor on the Huawei Mate 40, the TD Tech M40 features the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 Plus SoC instead. With the SoC change, the new TD Tech M40 features dual sim 5G connectivity, which allows for faster mobile data speeds, and improved CPU performance over its Kirin cousin. 

Coming to the rear cameras, the TD Tech M40 has a triple camera setup. Instead of the 50MP sensor found on the Huawei Mate 40, the TD Tech M40 utilises a 64MP main sensor instead with Laser Autofocus, f/1.9 aperture and support for 4K video recording. The 2 others are also very competitive as well, with the ultra-wide being a 16MP f/2.2 sensor with an additional macro-photography mode and an 8MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom. You’ll also get a 13MP wide-angle selfie camera at the front, for when you want to fit more memories into your photo.

As for the battery, the TD Tech M40 is equipped with a 4200mAh battery with 40W USB-C Fast Wired Charging and 40W Fast Wireless Charging. Another welcome addition to the device is also the inclusion of the 3.5mm headphone jack. The smartphone is also equipped with dual top-bottom stereo speakers for an immersive audio experience at home.

The device will be available in 3 gorgeous colours: Ceramic White, Secret Silver and Shiny Black. Its pricing for its two memory configurations is as follows:

• 8GB + 128GB – 3999 RMB (594 USD)
• 8GB + 256GB – 4499 RMB (668 USD)

The TD Tech M40 will be running with HarmonyOS 2.0 based on Android 10 out of the box in China, and the device will officially go on sale in China from May 13th onwards.

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(Source)

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