For the first time since the high-end Mate brand was introduced in 2013, Huawei Technologies will not update the smartphone as the company continues to deal with US trade sanctions, reported the South China Morning Post.
According to a report by LatePost on Wednesday, Huawei abandoned its plan to launch a new 5G Mate smartphone in September that would be powered by Huawei’s own Kirin chip.
After Huawei was added to the US Entity List in 2019, the company was blocked from purchasing semiconductors manufactured with US equipment and software. The US cites security concerns in its requirement that foreign users of US technology apply for a license before selling chips to Huawei.
Huawei chairman Eric Xu Zhijun reported that the company could not find a willing chip manufacturer and that semiconductor reserves were draining. Due to US sanctions, the company’s chip purchases from Japan fell from $10 billion in 2019 to $8 billion in 2020. Huawei shifted its focus to keeping current customers and launching its own operating system, HarmonyOS.
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