London: Huawei put uncertainty over the future of its devices business to one side on Tuesday with the launch of new Honor smartphones, in a confident display of the Chinese firm’s technology.
The world’s second-biggest phone maker runs its devices on Google’s Android platform outside China, but the U.S. Commerce Department blocked Huawei from buying U.S. goods last week, throwing future software updates into question.
The United States temporarily eased restrictions on Huawei on Tuesday, granting it a licence to buy U.S. goods until Aug. 19, meaning that updates of Google apps like Gmail and YouTube can continue until then.
George Zhao, president of Huawei’s youth-focused brand Honor, told hundreds of reporters, bloggers and analysts that he was “really happy to see so many friends”.
“We will talk and communicate with the world using our products, technology and innovation,” he added, as he showed off the Honor 20 Pro, which features four rear cameras, including wide-angle and telephoto, and a 48-megapixel main camera.
Francisco Jeronimo, associate VP for devices at IDC, said Honor had been successful for Huawei with an appeal that went way beyond the young customer they were targeting.
