Huawei Technologies Co (華為) largely omitted mention of its controversial Mate 60 smartphone series at a grand showcase of its new consumer products yesterday.
The Shenzhen-based company would increase smartphone production in response to demand, said consumer division chief Richard Yu (余承東), without naming the handset triggering that surge.
The Mate 60 Pro earned international notoriety with its advanced made-in-China processor last month, causing concern in Washington about Huawei’s progress toward developing in-house chipmaking capabilities despite US trade curbs.
Photo: Reuters
Huawei’s new phones have fired up the company’s sales and were among the top sellers in China in the week before Apple Inc’s latest iPhone launch. They are the first 5G-capable handsets that Huawei has put on sale since the administration of former US president Donald Trump’s sanctions cut it off from advanced tech suppliers. That connectivity is provided by the 7-nanometer Kirin 9000s processor inside — made by Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯) — which is accompanied by a broad range of China-made components inside each phone.
In another step toward self-reliance, Huawei did away with its longstanding partnership with Porsche Design, appointing instead Hong Kong celebrity Andy Lau (劉德華) as a brand ambassador to promote what it now calls Ultimate Design models.
Huawei provided a seconds-long glimpse of such a limited-edition variant of its Mate 60, and showed off its flagship MatePad tablet and new smartwatches.
Yu spent much of his time on stage benchmarking the MatePad Pro against Apple’s iPad Pro, underscoring Huawei’s aspiration to measure itself against the world’s best.
The Chinese company also touted its own semiconductor design used in a new set of wireless earbuds, though it did not provide details on the chip.
Meanwhile, Apple’s basic iPhone 15 model is taking almost twice as long for deliveries this year than its predecessor, signaling high demand for the company’s latest handsets.
US buyers need to wait for 10 days to receive the basic model, up from six days for the previous generation device launched last year, Counterpoint Research data showed.
At the other end of the spectrum, Apple’s top-tier iPhone 15 Pro Max increased pre-order waiting times to a record, researchers found.
In China, Apple’s largest overseas market, wait times for the basic version quadrupled from last year, Counterpoint said.
That suggests Apple is attracting buyers even amid competition from rival devices such as Huawei’s highly touted Mate 60 Pro.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS