Huawei has been the largest smartphone maker in the world for a while, but the company has been affected by a series of problems that put the coveted status in danger as new issues surface.
The trade ban imposed by the US has left the company without access to essential features like Google’s core selection of apps and services, including the iconic Google Play Store. Since US companies aren’t allowed to do business or to provide to banned companies, Qualcomm and Broadcom can’t offer their SoCs and modems to Huawei.
Major loss
According to a reliable source, LG and Samsung have also decided to cut their deals with Huawei and will no longer provide premium display from September 15. It is not clear which panels are deemed to be premium ones at this point.
Some voices argue that the displays in question are, in fact, the OLED panels which can be found on popular Huawei flagships, with the popular P40 Pro sporting an OLED panel which is manufactured and sold by Samsung. The broken deals could affect the manufacturing of premium Huawei smartphones in the future.
Escalating problems
The loss of LG and Samsung as displays suppliers are quite significant since both companies are among the largest display manufacturers in the world. Huawei will be forced to order panels from the local Chinese company, but it is unlikely that enough screens could be produced as fast as Huawei may want.
Recent reports also suggest that Huawei will no longer receive memory chips from Samsung and Hynix, leading to even more problems. Due to the current problems, Huawei plans to manufacture 50 million smartphones in 2021, down by 74% in comparison to the number of smartphones that should be sold by the company by the end of 2020.
Huawei’s future seems grim for now.