Huawei's Mysterious Product Fueling iPhone Competition 

Huawei announced a product launch event set for September 10, timed a day after Apple’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ event, where the iPhone 16 lineup will be revealed to the world, setting a new chapter in the Huawei VS Apple story.  

The Huawei event is scheduled for 2:30 PM Beijing time, coinciding with the late night of September 9 on the US West Coast. 

Apple and Huawei Competition 

Huawei has kept details about its upcoming product on the hush-hush, but in a post on Chinese social media platform, Weibo, Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer and automotive technology division, teased it as “an innovative, and disruptive product.” 

“This is an epoch-making product that others have thought of but cannot make,” Yu added, claiming that the product would bring “science fiction into reality,” after five years of investment. 

Is Huawei Bigger than Apple Following US Sanctions? 

Since being hit with US sanctions back in 2019, which placed the Chinese conglomerate on a blacklist due national security concerns. 

Since then, the US sanctions restricted American companies from supplying Huawei with key components to manufacture its products, with the most important one being advanced chips. 

Due to the sanctions, the Chinese giant lost its leading position in the Chinese smartphone market, fueling the ongoing Huawei VS Apple competition for some time, raising a question about its position in its home market: is Huawei bigger than Apple? 

By now, it is quite evident that Huawei was clearly affected by the sanctions under former president Trump’s term, with its sales plummeting to new drops. Despite all that though, the conglomerate still managed to sustain its market position and eventually returned to revenue growth, by launching new products, such as the Mate 60 Pro smartphone. among others.

Huawei’s efforts were the pillars that kept the Huawei VS Apple competition standing,  

Huawei has also made great refinements in its hardware development, replacing 13,000 foreign-made parts with locally sourced components. The most interesting example in this case is its Ascend processor, which, although slightly behind Nvidia’s in AI infrastructure, has shown citable improvements. Huawei’s processor is 1.1 times more efficient than its predecessors in training large language models.  

Huawei’s progress did not go unnoticed as Nvidia’s CEO to recently named the Chinese manufacturer as its primary rival, acknowledging the giant’s expanding influence in the home market. 

In Its Comeback, Is Huawei Copying Apple? 

Truth be told, Huawei’s efforts began to pay off only last year. Following this growth, some users began questioning, Is Huawei copying Apple? In response, this also ignited another question, what will happen to the iPhone parent in the Chinese market if Apple loses to Huawei in China? 

Last year, when Huawei launched a new phone featuring an advanced chip, catching the US and the tech industry off guard, it shook Apple’s dominance in China. By March 2024, Apple’s sales in China’s market dropped to 24%, raising the question: If Huawei beats Apple in China, will the world follow? 

In 2024’s second quarter (Q2), Huawei’s smartphones shipments in its homeland increased by 41% year-over-year (YoY), flagging the year with the fastest growth among the top five brands, according to research from Canalys. The giant’s growth is doing nothing but further solidifying Huawei’s position as a key competitor in the global innovative stage.  

Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Telecom sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.