There have been many high reviews for the Mate XT model that Huawei has just launched to compete with Apple, but there is a truth that many people can see in this unequal battle.
Martin Yang (phonetic), senior emerging technology analyst at Oppenheimer Investment Consulting,
said in an interview with CNBC that Huawei 's chip technology is still about two or three years behind the most advanced level.
Huawei's Mate XT has been highly praised since its launch.
Huawei's Mate XT has been highly praised since its launch.
He said the competitive gap between Huawei and Apple in the system-on-a-chip (SoC) field is widening. “Huawei is still unable to use processes below 7 nanometers.”
When Huawei launched its Mate 60 smartphone last year, it made a breakthrough in terms of chips,
using advanced 7-nanometer chips manufactured in mainland China.
The ability to achieve such a speed of research and development surprised many analysts at the time, as the US blocked China's
cquisition of advanced semiconductor technology through trade restrictions.
With the success of the Mate 60, Huawei has been able to regain a lot of market share from Apple in the mainland Chinese smartphone market.
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Mainland China is now the world's largest smartphone market.
However, when Huawei released its new tri-fold phone this week, it did not announce any major breakthroughs in chips.
On the other hand, Martin Young said that Apple now has a second-generation 3nm chip that has proven to be 10% to 15% better in performance than last year's phones.
He believes that in the future, Huawei's mobile phone marketing focus will not be on chips, and the disadvantages of chips will be reduced,
and the Mate XT will stand out as the first tri-fold phone on the market.
But chip power is a barrier that affects competition with Apple.
But chip power is a barrier that affects competition with Apple.
Huawei has opened pre-orders for the Mate XT since the 7th. According to Huawei's official website, the Mate XT has received 3.5 million pre-orders as of the 10th. Martin Young said that there were a large number of pre-orders for the Mate 60 last year, but there is not much precedent for actual sales. He believes that the Mate XT may not sell 3 million units globally.
Navkendar Singh, an analyst at market research firm IDC, also said in another CNBC interview on Tuesday that while Huawei is the dominant player in the foldable smartphone market, the market remains niche because consumers consider price and functionality.
