Huawei launched its three-screen foldable smartphone outside China today (February 18), as the company plans to return to the international market after struggling due to US sanctions.
Starting price over 90 million VND
The Mate XT triple-screen foldable smartphone starts at $3,660. However, the company has not announced which countries this model will be available in.
Huawei launches triple-screen foldable smartphone, with starting price of over 90 million VND.
The Mate XT was first released in China last year and has attracted global attention as the world's first triple-screen foldable phone. While conventional foldable devices can fold in half vertically or horizontally, the Mate XT has two folding points and can display content across one, two, or three screens.
Huawei was once the world's largest smartphone maker and competed with top names like Apple and Samsung in the premium market segment.
US sanctions that began in 2019 have cut off Huawei’s access to advanced chips and Google’s Android operating system, causing its market share to plummet. The company has been virtually wiped out of the international market as other brands have filled the void. Huawei’s smartphone market share outside China has fallen to just 0.3%, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
In China, though, Huawei’s market share is set to rise to 17% in 2024 from 12% last year, thanks to a comeback in late 2023 when it released smartphones containing fairly advanced chips. That component took many by surprise, given that US sanctions over the past few years have cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology. Huawei hopes to carry that momentum into overseas markets, where it focuses on high-end devices.
Do not use Android operating system
Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at IDC, believes that the Mate XT will not be sold in large numbers and may be aimed at people who want to show off that they can afford such an expensive device.
The MateXT does not use Google's Android operating system.
"I think Huawei is confident that the triple-screen foldable phone can be a unique value proposition, and because it's so expensive, they're targeting wealthy individuals who are more interested in showing off their money than getting the best experience you can get. But if they sell just half a million Mate XTs outside of China, it could generate $1.5 billion in revenue for Huawei," Jeronimo said.
The Mate XT will be a test of Huawei's appeal outside China. The biggest difference is that it won't use Google's Android operating system, the world's most popular.
While Android phone users can access millions of apps through the Google Play Store, Huawei's app store doesn't offer some of Google's most popular apps, which could reduce the Mate XT's appeal.
“The lack of Google remains a huge gap for the mainstream international market, especially those who will pay a premium for a triple-folding hardware but want to run Netflix, or the Google Play Store, or the most advanced Google Gemini GenAI features,” Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research, said of the Mate XT.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/huawei-trinh-lang-dien-thoai-thong-minh-gap-ba-man-hinh-ben-ngoai-trung-quoc-192250218172108889.htm
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