Huawei may reportedly lean on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon’s chipsets to run their flagship Mate50 and P50 premium smartphones in 2021.
Huawei is currently in a tough spot that no other company has been in. The Chinese company was on the ride of its life for the past couple of years. They saw skyrocketing growth in sales worldwide.
More people adapted to the Huawei ecosystem because of their premium smartphones. Huawei even surpassed Apple’s global sales for a certain period. Unfortunately, they have been forced back to the ground by the U.S. Government.
Experts are speculating that Huawei’s global performance will plummet following the extension of the blacklisting of Huawei to May 2021. As such, Huawei has to be creative to wiggle around the sanctions imposed on them. In fact, they may even turn to a competitor for support.
Kirin chipset manufacturing on hold
Huawei has always been manufacturing its own Kirin chipsets for its smartphones. The technology is shared with Honor devices too. The chipsets rival those that Apple and Samsung make. The key focus for the Chinese company is the AI design of their proprietary chips.
Unfortunately, the U.S. ban on Huawei is sending shockwaves throughout Huawei’s business. They may no longer be able to manufacture their own Kirin chipsets because they rely on several U.S. companies for key components. In order to be able to continue procuring parts from U.S. companies, Huawei must be removed from the blacklist.
As mentioned earlier, this may not happen considering that the ban on security threatening foreign companies was just extended to May 2021.
Qualcomm chipsets on Huawei?
A band-aid solution to the component problems on manufacturing is for Huawei to sit out the entire year until the ban is lifted. They do have plenty of options to choose from to power their premium smartphones. If Kirins cannot be manufactured, Huawei can turn to Apple or Samsung for support on chipset manufacturing.
Unfortunately, those two companies are rivals so going to them for help might not be the best answer. Good thing there is Qualcomm, which is neutral in this entire situation. As such, Huawei may end up using their latest 865 chipsets to run the Mate50 and the P50 in 2021.
Although the proposed solution seems easy, Huawei must still have to work around several sanctions imposed by the U.S. government. Qualcomm on the other hand also has to apply for a license to do business with Huawei should they decide to supply Snapdragon chipsets to Huawei.
Images courtesy of Huawei/ Youtube and Qualcomm/Youtube