A month after being put on the technology blacklist by the US, Huawei founder said the company’s smartphone segment is recovering quickly.
After being put on the blacklist, Huawei was turned away by many technology companies such as Google and ARM. This caused users to lose confidence in the future of its smartphone line, sales declined rapidly.
According to Bloomberg, Huawei smartphone sales abroad have decreased by 40-60%. However, in later interviews with CNBC, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei corrected these numbers.
According to Ren, 40% is just the peak number at a certain time. He said overseas smartphone sales are recovering quickly.
“Our overseas business situation is recovering, consumer businesses outside China only suffer losses of less than 20%. This segment is recovering quickly”, Ren Zhengfei said.
In the country, Huawei’s business situation is not negatively affected. Mr. Ren Zhengfei said that the consumer business segment, including smartphones and other consumer devices, will “not be greatly reduced” in 2019.
“There have been influences on foreign markets, but they are not as serious as many people think”, Huawei’s founder shared.
Due to an incident with the US, Huawei’s expected revenue in 2019 could decline from USD 135 billion to USD 100 billion. However, , Ren Zhengfei said that “profit is higher than before, and growing faster than we imagined.”
Foreign markets, especially the European market, are important for Huawei. In 2018, the company sold a total of 206 million smartphones, nearly half of which were in foreign markets, according to IDC data. Chinese customers hardly need Google services, but this is a very important factor for foreign users.
Huawei has a backup plan with its self-developed operating system, codenamed HongMeng OS. However, many experts believe that Huawei is unlikely to attract many users and developers to create an application ecosystem for this operating system.
It is Huawei’s leader who acknowledges that Google’s operating system is very important.
“Many functions in our new phones, like cameras, depend on Google’s operating system,” Ren said.
Mr. Ren also said that he would like to receive a call from US President Donald Trump to “discuss ways of cooperation to help both sides succeed in the future”. He also confirmed that Huawei’s business has nothing to do with Chinese government officials.
