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US ban could force HUAWEI to kill one of its flagship series this year
- HUAWEI will reportedly kill one of its most premium smartphone series this year.
- The Mate 50 flagships possibly won’t launch as a direct result of the US ban.
HUAWEI has been in turbulent waters ever since the US started imposing multiple sanctions on it in 2019. After selling off HONOR and falling out of the top five smartphone makers’ list, the company is reportedly considering killing one of its flagship series this year.
According to reports emerging from China (via GSMArena), HUAWEI will not release its Mate series phones this year because of a shortage of high-end Kirin chips.
The Mate 50 lineup was expected to launch in September or October. However, HUAWEI has still not launched its P50 series which should have ideally released by now given that the P40 series debuted in April last year.
It looks like HUAWEI, like most other tech companies, is dealing with the repercussions of the global chip shortage. Of course, it also doesn’t help that the US has cut off HUAWEI’s access to foreign chipmakers that use or license US technology.
If HUAWEI ends up killing the Mate flagships this year, it’ll be a first for the company since the premium series launched in 2013.
The HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro was one of the best all-around smartphones last year, but it was marred by the lack of Google services. Even the P50 series won’t come with Google apps on board, slimming its global prospects. Considering the circumstances, the death of the Mate series, at least for 2021, seems inevitable. HUAWEI, however, hasn’t confirmed the development officially so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.