Huawei may have found a way to continue bringing smartphones onto the market without being affected by the massive restrictions of the US embargo on the group. Allegedly, Huawei wants to out-license its smartphone designs.
As reported by the US business service Bloomberg, Huawei is considering licensing its self-developed smartphone designs so that third-party companies can sell them under their own brand. Huawei would thus become a kind of design house, as has long been the practice in the industry. Brand providers are outsourcing the development and design of smartphones to service providers in order to save costs and minimize risks.
Smartphones from Huawei development soon from third-party brands?
Huawei wants to create the possibility in this way that third companies sell the devices developed by the group under their brand. Negotiations are allegedly already underway with partners, including two Chinese companies supported by state institutions that could offer their own smartphones with Huawei's designs.
Allegedly, Huawei wants to save its smartphone business, which has collapsed almost completely as a result of the US embargo, by licensing smartphone designs. Work is already underway to adapt the motherboards of certain Huawei smartphones for the use of MediaTek and Qualcomm SoCs instead of Huawei's own Kirin chips.
Ultimately, according to internal estimates, around 30 million “Huawei smartphones” will be sold under the Group's own brand and in the form of out-licensed devices, at least according to the preliminary plan. Huawei actually already parted with a large part of its smartphone division when the subsidiary brand Honor was sold to external investors. Most of the Group's smartphone developers were also transferred to Honor.
Ultimately, apparently sees little potential for significant income from the licensing of its smartphone designs to third parties. Instead, the main aim is allegedly to maintain the in-house skills required to develop such devices. It is currently still completely unclear whether the planned smartphones from Huawei's license will also be offered outside of China. It is also unclear whether other perhaps better-known brands in this country could possibly offer products from the development of Huawei.
Comments