Xunwei Technologies Co (訊崴), which distributes Huawei Technologies Co (華為) products in Taiwan, late on Wednesday announced that it has halted sales of the Chinese firm’s flagship smartphone the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, citing supply issues.
Xunwei introduced Huawei’s latest model two weeks ago in Taipei, with a plan to sell the smartphones on Nov. 23 at NT$29,900 per unit exclusively at its stores.
Taiwan’s major telecoms did not include the handset in their offerings amid concern over customer acceptance as the Mate 30 Pro is the first smartphone from the Chinese firm that replaces Google Mobile Services with its own Huawei Mobile Services.
“Due to supply problems, we have canceled sales of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and Huawei Watch GT2,” Xunwei said in a Facebook post.
Expressing deep regret for inconveniencing customers, the company said that from Monday to Feb. 29 it would give refunds and extra compensation to customers who had preordered the phones.
Xunwei executives could not be reached for comment, amid speculation that politics played a role in the cancelation.
The National Communications Commission on Nov. 13 imposed a temporary ban on local telecoms and handset distributors selling three Huawei models — the Huawei P30, Huawei P30 Pro and Huawei Nova 5G — after the Chinese firm categorized Taiwan as “Taiwan, China” in its phones’ time zone and address book.
The restriction can only be lifted after the error is corrected, the commission said yesterday.
Huawei, the world’s No. 2 smartphone vendor, has previously come under fire in mainland China for doing the opposite — not labeling Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau as part of China in some Chinese-language settings.
Additional reporting by AFP
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