GO BEYOND

Honor separated from Huawei in November 2020 and began its independent operations. After getting rid of the shackles of the past, its CEO, Zhao Ming, seemed to be full of hope for the company’s future. In a recent interview, Zhao claimed that Honor has a new mission in 2021, which is to compete fairly with its old owners and Apple in the market and build better mobile phone products.

At the new office of Honor, which is only 15 kilometers away from Huawei’s Shenzhen headquarters, Zhao said: “After being no longer subject to US sanctions on Huawei’s smartphone business, our core mission this year is to manufacture flagship phones that can compete with Apple and Huawei in China. No matter who the competitors are, we have the confidence to surpass them, including Huawei.”

Divorce and New Beginning

HONOR was established in 2013. By providing young consumers with stylish smartphones with an average price of between US$150 and US$220, Huawei’s domestic and international sales have surpassed that of Apple and Samsung Electronics.

Under US sanctions, Huawei can no longer obtain the hardware and software needed to remain competitive. Therefore, in Huawei’s words, the company decided to “divorce” Honor, rather than sacrifice this excellent brand in vain.

In November 2020, Huawei sold Honor to a consortium composed of more than 30 distributors and agents. The final terms of the transaction have not been made public, but it is estimated that the value of the transaction is between 15 billion and 40 billion US dollars.

Rebuild Business Partnership

Last week, Honor announced that it will resume its cooperative relationship with many large semiconductor companies worldwide, including Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. Zhao even stated that the company is negotiating with Google and is expected to resume its partnership with the company.

Although the introduction of Qualcomm chips in its mobile phones may represent a big step forward for Honor, Google apps and services are still the most critical components in all Android smartphones sold outside of China. When Huawei was cut off from Google Mobile Services (GMS), the move almost killed its smartphone overseas market share. In order to ensure Honor continues to succeed overseas, it needs to pre-install Google applications, including Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, and most importantly, the Google App Store.

Go Beyond

In January, Honor released the new HONOR V40, which is the company’s first smartphone since its separation from Huawei. It is currently only sold in China, and there is no information about international release. Although the company has not confirmed whether it will launch GMS outside of China, Honor may be waiting for Google to confirm support for its phones again.

Just like Zhao’s intention to push Honor to the high-end mobile phone market, the V40 is a mid-range mobile phone with a starting price of 3,599 yuan (about US$555). Although it is expensive, it includes features that many users may only expect in high-end phones, such as 66W charging and 120Hz screen. This is a strategy commonly used by Honor, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and other domestic brands.

Zhao said: “Even without much marketing, V40 sold out within four minutes on major e-commerce platforms including Tmall, JD.com and Suning, as well as our own website.”

Honor’s goal is to enter the high-end machine market with a price of 4,000 yuan (about US$617) and above, while further expanding overseas. Zhao said that Europe is a market that needs to increase development efforts. In the first nine months of 2020, the Honor brand has a market share of approximately 5% in the European smartphone market. The company also has a strong sales team in Latin America. Currently, Zhao seems to be more focused on the future. He talked about expanding into new markets and competing with Apple and Huawei.

“If there are friends, there is a future”

The new partnership can also ease the pressure of Honor to expand into the new product lineup, which is not only helpful for smartphones. In addition to the V40, the company also released a new MagicBook notebook last week, which is only possible with continued cooperation with Intel and Microsoft.

Without glory, Huawei may fall behind in the smartphone market. Although Honor sees growth opportunities through new partnerships, resistance still exists. To enter the high-end market, especially in regions where there is no shortage of competitive products, Honor needs more than just Qualcomm and Intel chips. This is a challenge that Zhao has realized. He said: “Although we currently have a very strong R&D foundation, we believe that the first thing to do is to strengthen the R&D and product teams.”

But Zhao also emphasized the importance of maintaining the company’s retail partnership, which is essential for delivering its products to consumers. He said: “Glory still adheres to the concept – If there are friends, there is a future.”

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.