New information about Huawei’s business relations with US companies suggests that the Chinese smartphone maker’s problems in the smartphone market will not end very soon. Indeed, several industry voices say that Qualcomm has been licensed to sell to Huawei, but this license only applies to devices without 5G. Thus, Huawei will not be able to produce even new 5G phones, not just telecom equipment.
Qualcomm’s 5G processors will not be sold to Huawei
According to analyst John Vinh from KeyBanc, the US authorities block any sale of 5G equipment to Huawei. This includes processors equipped with 5G modems, which could be used in smartphones. Thus, Qualcomm could only sell high-end processors up to the Snapdragon 855 generation and Snapdragon 730 mid-range chipsets.
This decision is in line with the license that TSMC received just a few months ago, which allowed the company to produce for Huawei processors with a manufacturing process of up to 28nm. Those models are from very old generations and can no longer be considered competitive in the market at this time.
Under these conditions, Huawei could have two options: either to quickly exit the smartphone market and direct its efforts in other directions, or to continue to produce phones with older technologies, in the hope that its processor factories on the market. which will build them in China will reach a competitive level in a short time.
In the next period, the Huawei processor factory, developed without American technology, should first be able to produce 45nm processors. It would advance rapidly to 28 and 20nm in the next two years. Meanwhile, market competition is already using the 5nm process, with Apple and Samsung already having such processors officially announced, while Qualcomm will announce one in December. In fact, Huawei also has one already on the market, the Kirin 9000 model, which can be found in the Mate 40 case.
Robert J. Smith is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including JoyStiq and Android Authority. In regards to academics, Robert earned a degree in business from Fordham University. Robert has passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
