Why Huawei struggles to release (premium) smartphones that don’t sell
It has everything to seduce lovers of beautiful pictures. P60 Pro, the latest high-end smartphone of the Chinese brand Huawei, marketed on Monday 22 May from 1199 euros and which we tested before its release, is a little gem that significantly outperforms the competition in this field. It even earned the highest score ever, 156, from the DxOMark test lab, the world’s leading authority on the subject.
Logic: The three-lens module (48MP main sensor (MP), 13MP wide-angle and 48MP telephoto lens) is the first in the world to be equipped with a mechanical and progressive diaphragm opening system, custom-adjustable as in “real” cameras. This manipulates the amount of light entering the sensor and the effects of background blur at an incredible level of detail. Equally amazing, night shots are incredibly accurate, with unprecedented balance and precision, no matter how weak the light source.
A jewel worth more than 1,000 euros
However, this perfect image hides a major flaw, and there is little chance that this model will be commercially successful. Just a few hundred or thousands of Huawei fans or high-performance imaging devices would pay more than 1,000 euros to buy the P60 Pro.
The trade embargo bug that has hit the brand, which has been accused of acting as a bridgehead for Chinese espionage, by the US authorities since 2019 and which prevents it from providing hardware or software from some new technology companies. This is why the P60 Pro, like all Huawei models available for almost five years, is deprived of 5G chips and modern processors, but also and above all, Google services and applications.
If it works fine with Android (provided by Google), it is impossible to access the Play Store to download apps, use Google Maps, Gmail, or an app that uses Google services to launch or select a user (like most banking apps for example, or those of RATP).
There are many tricks to get around these limitations, such as with the “Gsuite” program which currently allows you to emulate the main Google apps, but without any guarantee that they will work in a week or a month.
Despite Huawei’s efforts to create an alternative App Store, the result is there: sales have collapsed in recent years and the Chinese giant, which jumped into the top three in France, is ahead of the American Apple and all behind the unbeatable Samsung in 2018. For example, Now down the rankings.
Why the hell does Huawei keep marketing devices with low sales potential and are doomed to commercial failure? “The US sanctions are a big problem for us, they must be recognized, and it will be very difficult to do better as long as they are still in place,” admits Roger Liu, general manager of the French entity Huawei. However, we are staying in France, because even if sales are weak The company continues to perform well.”
The brand focuses on business customers
The Chinese brand not only manufactures smartphones, but also develops its activities in the field of communications, communication networks and electrical equipment. Hence its clients are other companies such as Carrefour or SNCF, but also from the public sector.
“There are still a few individuals who fall in love with the brand’s smartphones because they are excellent products, but Huawei is betting on these customers above all. a job In France, a former employee of the company confirms. It does a simple calculating the pros and cons of staying put. At the moment, the scale tends to stick because, at the same time, most of the profits made in China, on smartphones and in the world of electric cars for example, make it possible to make huge profits. The technique is to occupy the land in the hope that it can return more easily once the impediment is lifted, which depends on the diplomatic and trade relations between China and the United States. »
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