Huawei lost over US$60 million on foldable phones

The Chinese smartphone giant lost between US$60-70m on the foldable Huawei Mate X

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Huawei lost over US$60 million on foldable phones

Masha Borak

Published: 8:37pm, 9 Apr 2020Updated: 8:37pm, 9 Apr 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Even though Huawei’s foldable Mate X smartphone costs a whopping US$2,400, the company says it’s still losing money on it.

Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer business, said in an interview with Chinese media outlet The Paper on Thursday that his company has already lost between US$60 million and US$70 million on foldable phones.

If the figures are accurate, Huawei seems undeterred by the massive losses. The company already launched a new-and-improved foldable phone called the Mate Xs by the end of February. And this one costs even more, coming in at around US$2,700. (In China, the handset sells for US$300 less, putting it in line with the previous model.)

Huawei says the new version of its foldable phone, the Mate Xs, has an improved display and hinge over the original from last year. (Picture: Huawei)

But the Mate X woes don’t appear to be inflicting all of Huawei’s handsets. Yu said sales are going well for the recently announced P40 Lite, which, to be fair, costs a fraction of the price of the Mate X.

Huawei phones are still a challenging sell overseas since a US blacklist has stripped access to Google apps like YouTube, Google Maps and Google Play. Analysts have pointed out that this will affect sales. Huawei has been working to replace Google apps and services with its own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), but the smartphone maker admits that it would prefer to continue using Google services.