Mate XS, AppGallery, strategy… Huawei unpacks its announcements originally planned for the MWC

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Huawei held a press conference from Barcelona on Monday, February 24, 2020, where the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was scheduled to take place this week before being canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic. The company announced its new products there and outlined its strategy for the coming months. The lights are, according to her, green. "We have grown 18% year-on-year globally. The increase is noticeable on smartphones (+ 16.8% in 2019 compared to 2018, N.D.L.R.), with 240 million units delivered, or 17.6% of market share worldwide "said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei.

A "1 + 8 + N" ECOSYSTEM

The Chinese precisely puts the smartphone at the heart of an ecosystem he has baptized "1 + 8 + N" (cf. photo below). From the use of the latter follows the use of a second circle of smart health connected objects, all manufactured by Huawei – PC, tablet, television, speaker, glasses, watch, headphones … A fabric composed of 1,000 partners in the IoT completes the picture in a third and final circle encompassing the leisure, travel, health, health home automation or mobile office sectors. Thanks to its equipment manufacturer's cap, the lotus brand also provides the equipment necessary to make the link between these different circles (symbolized by the "+").

The products presented today by the Chinese will enhance the ecosystem that he places at the heart of his medium-term vision. Its new foldable smartphone, the Mate XS, runs on its latest 5G modem, the Kirin 990… "which supports 8 different frequency bands and offers better performance than its competitor, the Snapdragon" of Qualcomm, assured Richard Yu. To resist bending, the device is made of zirconium, a material "30% harder than titanium and three times more expensive than gold". Result: 2499 euros for 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

Note that the manufacturer will unveil a more affordable 5G smartphone next month, from Paris. It intends to capitalize on the new standard of mobile telephony to sell even more in 2020, after having delivered "more than 10 million compatible smartphones" at the end of January. Between the lines, Huawei still has the ambition to become the world's leading manufacturer. A goal he missed in 2019, mainly due to the embargo imposed by the United States over two-thirds of the year.

A SERIES OF NEW PRODUCTS

Also on the announcements program for this Monday, the tablet MatePad Pro 5G. Designed for uses such as cloud gaming, it offers a definition of 2560×1000 and a resolution of 280 pixels per inch. With a border "thinner than those of iPads" from Apple, the device has four speakers and would "the first tablet to charge wirelessly in the world". Entrance fee: 549 euros.

The range of PC MateBook is also updated. "Here too, we are seeing strong demand, with an increase of almost 200% between 2018 and 2019", said Richard Yu. MateBook X Pro will start at 1499 euros and will include a touch screen. The MateBook D15 and D14 will start at 649 and 699 euros respectively and have been designed for more standard use under Windows 10 – the Microsoft Office 365 pack is thus included with the purchase.

The router X3 will also be compatible with WiFi 6, the standard for which Huawei claims to be "the world's largest contributor", in addition to 5G. Finally, the module MH 5000, specially designed in order to bring 5G to smart health connected objects, would be the "smallest in the world" to date and would operate ten years at temperatures "between -40 ° C and 85 ° C".

STRENGTHENING ITS INDEPENDENCE

Beyond the products, Huawei seeks to raise its AppGallery in power. While the American embargo largely calls into question the use of Google’s Android operating system by its devices, the lotus brand is distancing itself from it. Already available in "more than 170 countries", its app store aims to attract "the 150 most popular titles" in each of these markets. In a hand extended to the developers, who drag their feet to develop compatible applications for platforms other than the Google Play Store and the App Store, Huawei announces the program "Shining-Star" to the tune of 1 billion dollars, as well as development kits to take advantage of cameras, localization and artificial intelligence. As a reminder, the Chinese company is also developing its own operating system, dubbed HarmonyOS.

 "We bring significant added value to the tech industry globally, said Richard Yu. Just like Google has done to us in the past. " One way to get the message out that Huawei is now ready to stand on its own two feet. The French market is one of its priorities in Europe. And the American embargo would hardly be felt there. "We went from 14.8 to 18.8% of the market share on the smartphone in one year, detailed François Hernandez, vice president of Huawei France in charge of sales. And the trend is solid: when a French consumer is thinking about changing their mobile today, Huawei is the second brand he thinks about. " To consolidate its place, the lotus brand is working with application publishers such as Euronews, BFM, Coyote and Cdiscount to supply its local application store. It will also inaugurate its flagship store on March 6, place com l'Opéra in Paris. The first of network of physical points of sale, which will spread "quickly to other big cities" from the country.

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