Opinion | US sanctions killed the old Huawei. What will the reborn one look like?
- Recent efforts to build its own supply chain – independent of US control – may be signs that Huawei won’t abandon its hardware-based business model
- In 2021, without Honor sales under its belt, Huawei’s global smartphone share is projected to be only 4 per cent
It may be premature to write Huawei’s obituary, but one thing is clear – the company we once knew is no longer.
While China’s telecoms and smartphone champion will most likely survive in some form, it will look very different.
The old Huawei wanted to be the global leader in smartphones and 5G technology. Now, with Washington finding and closing the loopholes Huawei exploited to get around US sanctions designed to block its access to critical technologies such as semiconductors, it looks like those goals are forever out of its grasp.
Its ambitions for global 5G dominance, by providing the necessary hardware to power the next generation networks, seemed on track before the company was targeted by Washington as a national security risk.
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How the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou soured China's relations with the US and Canada
As a result of US government pressure, Huawei has been shut out of most major Western 5G markets. It is still hanging on in a number of smaller countries but its dreams of world 5G domination are over.
