Earlier this week, the third biggest vendor of smartphone devices in the planet took the opportunity to formally introduce its latest flagship devices, the P20 and the P20 Pro phablets, plus the new Porsche inspired Mate RS. With these high profile new announcements, one might think it is business as usual for Huawei, but for those following mobile related news lately, business has been everything but the usual for the Chinese tech giant in the last few months.
For any major mobile brand, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (which happens a month or so before the bigger Mobile World Congress) presents an opportunity to showcase some non-flagship offerings, but earlier this year, Huawei instead had to handle the news of its supposed national wireless carrier partner, AT&T, backing out of a deal that should see the Chinese phone maker’s high end devices get sold by the mobile operator. It turned out that AT&T was pressured by United States lawmakers in order to drop Huawei.
Then more than a week ago, it was reported that one of Huawei’s most prominent retail partners, Best Buy, was planning to cease sales of the mobile manufacturer’s devices. Although Huawei had never had the opportunity to enjoy support from the Big Four carriers of America, at least it had partners like Best Buy to help Huawei phones get some exposure across the United States.
With all that has been happening, Huawei has every right to be unhappy. But through an email message sent to CNET, the company remains committed to realizing its US ambitions. As expressed by Richard Yu, the chief executive officer of the company, it will soldier on by focusing on producing world class and innovative products that should earn the trust of American mobile users, no matter what the US government thinks.
It is no secret that the US government has no love for Huawei -- more than a month ago, six of the country’s top intelligence officials had spoken before the Senate Intelligence Committee, essentially warning American consumers not to buy or use any devices or services provided by Chinese tech giants, including Huawei and ZTE (whose Android Go powered Tempo Go smartphone is now made available for purchasing).
But Huawei maintains to this day that the US government’s distrust of Chinese mobile brands is blown out of proportion. Huawei itself understands the need for guaranteeing national security, but it believes that it has been treated unfairly, based on groundless allegations. As a matter of fact, the company is even open to the idea of conducting a completely transparent discussion with regards to how safe its products and services are to the American people. But is the US government willing to give Huawei another chance? That remains to be seen.
