Huawei has unveiled what it calls the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, just hours after arch-rival Apple introduced the iPhone 16, in a carefully timed Tuesday launch that has generated significant buzz for the Chinese tech giant.
The Shenzhen-based firm, which has been a flashpoint in an escalating tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing, is currently in the midst of a spectacular comeback having launched wildly popular models like the Mate 60 Pro and Mate X5. In August, Huawei reported double digit jumps in both revenue and profit, despite US sanctions.
Successful sales of the Mate XT smartphone, which currently has more than 3.7 million pre-orders since becoming available online Saturday, would be another indication of the company’s sustained resurgence. The base model starts at 19,999 yuan ($2,800).
Richard Yu, the chairman of Huawei’s consumer business, said at the livestreamed launch event that the smartphone had taken five years to develop, leading to “breakthroughs” in screen and hinge technology.
“Huawei Mate XT is the world’s first triple-fold smartphone, and the largest and thinnest foldable handset globally,” he said. “We are the first in the world to achieve outward folding (in smartphones) and the first to create an inward-folding phone with no gaps.”
The phone features three panels that can be folded up to three times, Yu said. It has a 10.2-inch screen and is available in red and black.
Tuesday’s product launch came just hours after competitor Apple (AAPL) unveiled a slew of new products, including the iPhone 16, its first smartphone purpose-built for generative artificial intelligence (AI). It’s a feature the company hopes will help convince customers to upgrade.
Amber Liu, research manager at market research firm Canalys, said Huawei’s rapid recovery “directly challenges” Apple’s performance in China, its second-largest market which accounts for over 20% of its global shipments.
It also comes after Chinese smartphone makers dominated the top five spots domestically on a quarterly basis for the first time ever, she said, pushing Apple to sixth place.
“The close timing of Huawei and Apple’s product launches signals the start of a new competitive wave in the Chinese premium market,” Liu told CNN. Key areas of competition will include high-end products, software capabilities and AI deployment, she added.
Apple said that generative AI, like ChatGPT, on its iPhone 16 would allow users to create text and images with natural-language prompts. It’s unclear whether the Mate XT includes any AI features.
Big screen, high price
Jene Park, a senior analyst at the smartphone foldables practice at Counterpoint Research, said the company is clearly focusing on a larger display and extended battery usage time.
“I think this latest attempt could bring about significant changes in the display size of book-type foldables, which currently range from 7 inches to 8 inches,” he added.
Analysts say the success of the launch will depend, in part, on the phone’s pricing and availability. Liu believes actual sales will be lower than the number of pre-orders for those reasons.
Sales of Huawei’s flagship smartphones rose 72% in the first five months of 2024, compared to the same period a year ago, Yu said in June, underscoring the company’s ambitions to claw its way back to the top despite severe US restrictions.
US policymakers have long claimed that Huawei poses a national security risk, alleging that the Chinese government could use the company’s equipment to spy. The company repeatedly denied those allegations, but that didn’t stop some American allies — such as the UK — limiting Huawei’s role in building 5G networks.
The US ban prevented companies like Google (GOOGL) from supplying new Huawei devices with its version of Android OS. Those restrictions dealt a huge blow to the Chinese firm’s smartphone ambitions at the time, with some analysts predicting the Huawei phone would become “a brick.”
Now, the company is once again making its way back to the top. It’s also venturing into new businesses. Last year, it launched an electric sedan to take on Tesla’s Model S. And it has big ambitions in AI.
Nvidia (NVDA) earlier this year named Huawei a top competitor in a number of areas, including in the production of processors that power AI systems.
