Is the US shooting itself in the foot by banning Huawei?
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Your direct competitors are also Chinese, the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, OnePlus, and Lenovo.
Too great to justify expanding your revenue streams? While the Samsung Exynos example maybe a wash, Samsung also sells its memory chips to its competitors, and has previously fabbed chips for Apple. The profit streams are just too great to ignore. Intel and Qualcomm sell their processors yes and they don't have to compete with their customers, yes, but look at how much those chips bring in to both Intel and Qualcomm's bank accounts. Samsung sells their screens, chips, and fab capacity because overall those, those operations make MORE money than the super tight margins of the smartphone business. Look at Sony. They sell their cutting edge sensors to everyone, including competitors like Nikon or Apple, even if Sony has their own camera and smartphone business.
Then you talk about China and the US trade war. This is not relevant to that, and in fact, if this is China vs. the US, the HiSilicon selling Kirin chips to other Chinese smartphone makers becomes even more relevant, as all these companies, no longer have to depend on Qualcomm, Mediatek and Intel. The smartphone industry is no longer growing except on certain emerging countries. But on China it has already plateaued and everything from then on is tight margins.
If Huawei banned from using Google software (not Android), it can stand to lose its international markets. While the Chinese market is Huawei's main market, its growth in the international market remains substantial and contributes to the bottom line. When you lose that, where you can still afford a little bit more margin, you are left with nothing but the overly price sensitive and cutthroat domestic market with its razor thin margins. The problem of smartphone manufacturing is that its still a high overhead business and you can easily lose money on that division, see the likes of LG, Sony, Lenovo et all. Even Samsung is not making that much money from its smartphone business, which is why its diversifying more into semiconductors.
HiSilicon selling to other Chinese smartphone makers means its all completely on Qualcomm's expense, and that's exactly what a trade war is. The money Qualcomm makes from selling Snapdragons --- the biggest market is China due to all the phone makers --- goes to HiSilicon and stays in China. When you can no longer sell Huawei phones in India and the Philippines with the lack of Google Play, you can make up for it with HiSilicon powered Oppos, OnePlus, Xiaomis and Vivos. Your potential revenue stream down the road is greater selling chips and it would be to keep selling on the ever thin margin of a mature smartphone market.
Apparently, as it appears the bilateral approach does not seem to work too well to pressure major European countries to ban Huawei, the US is resorting to NATO to exert more pressure. Presumably, some small Eastern European countries or the New Europe have more needs for the US security protection and can be mobilized to show that banning Huawei is not just the US demand, but also some members of NATO countries. Also, the security and intelligence officers of EU countries are more sympathetic to the US demand. A role for Poland here too?
I've just bought a gorgeous Huawei MateBook X Pro. The best Windows laptop ... at a very affordable price of $1299. I didn't know Huawei also makes laptop until recently because all the Huawei news coverage and they had only entered the laptop market for a few years and has become one of the best. It also gives your MacBook a run for the money.
To be continued...
Phone envy
By Mar 17, 2019, 9:00am EDT
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The US is falling behind on phone design, and foldables are the proof. This year’s Mobile World Congress was full of foldables, from to to to to the to .
But all of those devices have one thing in common: like the last few waves of innovative phone designs released overseas, they won’t be available in America in any meaningful way. Looking at the foldable landscape, there’s basically only one device out there that will actually be sold in the US, from carriers, without requiring to deal with import fees or cellular compatibility: .
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Cool phones from overseas have always had a tough time making their way to America, due to market demand, trade agreements, and complex other geopolitical factors. The current is an obvious example.
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But the problem isn’t just about US customers missing out on cool and interesting phones, although that’s plenty frustrating. It’s also that flagships from companies like Oppo and Huawei are increasingly some of the best hardware in the world, offering new ideas and specs on par with the best phones in the US, but at far more affordable prices. And that means less competition in a stagnant domestic phone market that largely just consists of Apple and Samsung phones.
Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo are the No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5 smartphone makers in the world by marketshare, but in the United States there’s a virtual duopoly. , in the fourth quarter of 2018, Apple controlled a 54 percent chunk of the market, while Samsung had 22 percent — together, the two brands make up more than three quarters of all phones sold in the US. The next closest competitor is LG, at 12 percent, and it’s been struggling with smartphone sales for years. Even seeming juggernauts like Google, with its Pixel line critically lauded and benefitting from the full firepower of the company’s marketing behind it, and Sony, a brand US consumers are incredibly familiar with, can barely make a dent.
So even if Chinese brands could sell in the US, odds are they’ll face an uphill battle breaking into the market. But it’s largely a moot point, since right now it’s not even a competition at all. Additionally, the boringness of US phones also hurts innovation. Right now, major devices in the US are dull, with notches and iPhone X-ish designs. As far as most US customers are concerned, that’s the height of innovation, so much so that when Samsung comes out with its , it feels like a victory. But Chinese phones have already far surpassed those notched designs due to the faster and more experimental pace of technology.
Outside the US, the phone world is filled with truly weird and innovative ideas. Bored of dull, black and white phones? Check out these neon-hued gradients that shimmer in the sun:
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To be continued...
... Continued.
Hate your notch? How about a pop-up camera that appears when you need it, and leaves your screen gloriously unmarred when you don’t?
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Or maybe just try a that flips around for selfies, or , or . Sure, not all of them are the most practical, but they’re pushing the envelope forward in a way that Apple and Samsung’s hardware simply aren’t.
Plus, , the fact that only one or two of those devices will be available in the US for now is going to severely limit their adoption. Right now, the foldable space is a free-for-all, with widely varied ideas of what styles of folding phones work and don’t. But US customers are only going to get to see a fraction of what’s out there. Right now, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is the only game in town for US customers, and even if you prefer the slim style and inverse fold that Huawei is using on the Mate X, you’re likely out of luck.
Now, it’s possible to circumvent some of the issues — if you’re willing to pay a premium, you can import all the latest and greatest phones from outside the US. In theory, unified telecom standards mean unlocked cell phones aren’t restricted to any carrier: you can simply buy any phone on the internet and be good to go.
But the reality is more complicated. Different carriers and phones support different LTE bands and different cellular technologies (hello, GSM vs. CDMA). Without the partnership and blessing of a carrier, it’s a crapshoot as to whether your new device will actually work properly when it’s powered on stateside.
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These compatibility problems are only going to get worse in the future . It’s bad enough finding an unlocked phone that supports your carrier’s best LTE bands in the US. Throwing in the chaos of different chunks of 5G spectrum that vary from carrier to carrier with different modem and antennas requirements will only make things worse. With that may mean 5G coverage gaps, it seems virtually impossible that you’ll simply be able to buy an unlocked 5G phone and have it work in the US, at least not for years to come.
It’s not like Chinese companies haven’t tried to enter the US market. Xiaomi did a push a few years back, but only ended up selling and and even that underpinned scooter startups like Bird — but no phones. Huawei has arguably gotten the closest of all. At CES 2018, Huawei was on the verge of announcing a deal with AT&T to sell the Mate 10 Pro in the US, but due to . Verizon was reportedly scared away as well.
Both those efforts ended in failure, and with the political winds blowing the way they are, it’s increasingly looking like the US phone market won’t have to worry about competition from companies like Huawei or Xiaomi anytime soon. But that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable to be stuck on the sidelines watching all the cool hardware from afar.
Jura The idiot
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from a major retailer here:It's already on sale to the public?
43 990,- Czech crowns (including VAT)
43,990CZK =
1,947.80USD
Huawei MateBook X Pro Mystic Silver
Právě si prohlíží 187 zákazníků
+4 další
Notebook - Intel Core i7 8550U Kaby Lake Refresh, 13.9" multidotykový LED 3000x2000 IPS, RAM 16GB LPDDR3, NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2GB GDDR5, PCIe NVMe SSD 512GB, WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth, USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, USB 3.1 Gen 1, webkamera, čtečka otisků prstů, Dolby Atmos, MateDock 2, 57.4Wh baterie, Windows 10 Pro 64bit
It's already on sale to the public?
The 2018 edition. The 2019 edition is not yet on the shelf, likely to be in April or May. The 2019 edition will have some minor upgrades over the 2018 one. I'm taking advantage of the discount before the new edition come out. ;-)
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