Phones
Huawei D series phones could return next year, a big move is coming in mobile business
Next year (2022) Huawei will bring a big move for its mobile phone business. Information via a tipster reveals that the company could bring back an important flagship phone series that was discontinued years ago – the Huawei D series. This could be a major turning point and a new standing in the strategy part of the company.
Huawei D series:
At CES 2012, Huawei began its journey into the mainstream smartphone market and introduced Huawei Ascend P1. This first-gen P series phone, then followed by Huawei Ascend D1, was launched at Mobile World Congress 2012.
Huawei Ascend D1 unveiled with K3V2 quad-core processor, with 4.5-inch HD display, 8 MP rear camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera, and Android 4.0 based operating system. The phone lineup was made available throughout the globe.
At CES 2013, Huawei Ascend D2 was made to the launch floor. In 2014, the lineup was converted into “Mate-series”. Yes, the current flagship lineup was first originated from Ascend D lineup.
Throughout its run, the company launched five models including:
- Huawei Ascend D Quad XL
- Huawei Ascend D1
- Huawei Ascend D1 Quad
- Huawei Ascend D2
- Huawei Ascend D3 (Mate 3)
Huawei’s Big Move:
This year, Huawei has been facing a lot of issues in terms of the component supply chain. Therefore, Huawei has to gather different resources and supply partners to assemble a mobile.
For instance, the latest Huawei P50 series took enough retakes and rescheduling to launch among consumers. Even after the current supply chain issues, the Chinese tech maker was able to pull off this move. Still, the device remained limited to the Chinese market and was likely to make a debut in limited foreign markets.
For your information, Huawei usually launches the P series flagship in the first quarter of each year but the Huawei P50 series has to push in late July, which is the third quarter of this year. The severity of component shortage is clearly visible.
Among other hardware, Huawei is mainly having issues with the Chipset for smartphones. Following the four rounds of sanction, the company cannot print new chipsets from TSMC or similar foundry makers. Moreover, it cannot purchase them either.
However, Qualcomm has the permission to feed Huawei with 4G chipsets and Huawei has officially stepped into this partnership by launching a new tablet and P50 series.
Huawei Mate:
After the launch of the Huawei P50 series, rumors began to spread that Huawei Mate 50, the next Mate series flagship, won’t launch. Yet, a report reveals that Huawei will definitely unveil the next Mate phone but actually, it won’t happen this year.
Furthermore, Gu Ping, Huawei’s current Rotating Chairman also said that the company will not give up on its smartphone business.
(Huawei Mate 50 Pro concept render, source – Hoiindi)
From this statement, we can expect that the Chinese phone maker will try to survive and continue to launch new smartphones and maintain its launch cycles. Rather than expanding it further.
Coming back to the Huawei Mate series, Huawei is planning to boost the use of Snapdragon chipset in its smartphones. Thereafter, the return of the D series could only be possible with the support of the Snapdragon chipset.
It’s also suggested that Huawei will have sufficient Snapdragon chips stock from December, which will further enhance Huawei’s smartphone manufacturing capability in even scenarios.
Go where it all began:
Huawei’s supply chain is completely destroyed by the U.S. sanctions and its mobile business has seen the worst drop in years. Therefore, it’s could be no harm if, this Chinese tech giant began a new adventure, that could have no harm to try.
But does it means, Huawei will shift from Mate to D-series?
We don’t know the answer to this question but the Mate series has its own user base. The lineup is full of top-notch smartphones that made a special contribution to Huawei’s smartphone world dominance over the past years.
However, we don’t have any inputs on whether Huawei has finalized this plan, or it’s just a plan on paper. Still, the launch will happen next year, there’s is plenty of time left in the making. So, if anything else appears, we’ll keep you posted.
