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Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) today announced that it has shipped 200 million smartphones to date in 2019, 64 days earlier than the same shipment milestone last year. Huawei’s relentless focus on cutting-edge technology and innovative ID design, with its complete commitment to consumers worldwide, has reinforced their trust and commitment as more consumers continue to support Huawei.
Read moreHuawei Ships 200 Million Smartphone Units For 2019 In Record Time
Global smartphone brand HONOR has announced the launch of PocketVision, an AI powered app that makes it easier for the visually impaired and people with low vision to read. According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form visual impairment. PocketVision uses the power of HONOR’s AI (artificial intelligence) and superior quad camera technology in the HONOR 20 PRO to deliver a portable, affordable alternative to other magnifiers and typoscopes currently on the market, creating an enhanced reading experience for people all around the world.
Read moreHonor Empowers the Visually Impaired with Launch of New AI-Powered App – ‘PocketVision’
The Honor 20 Pro is the latest smartphone from Huawei’s budget-friendly sub-brand with superior camera specifications. With a DxOMark Mobile score of 111 points, the Honor 20 Pro catapults into joint second place among the smartphones we’ve tested to date. Note that, DxOMark scores of each Mobile are generated after testing 1500 photos and 2 hours of video using scientific methods.
DxOMark is the trusted industry standard for smartphone, camera and lens image quality measurements and ratings. For the past 10 years, it has been recognised for scoring cameras using the most rigorous and comprehensive testing and analyses.
We are proud to publish this YouTube video today to our new section – The Business of Mobile Photography. Take a look below.
We have decided to launch a new intimate style of interview into TheAppWhisperer – the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website. We feel it is important that our community feel close to each other, as it is this support that helps us to nurture one another, gain confidence and continue to grow.
This is our sixteenth interview, to read the others, please go here. Today, we are publishing this beautifully profound, comprehensive cultural interview with talented mobile artist M. Cecilia São Thiago who along with virtue of her inspirational imagery, attempts to reconcile time, as understood in science, with time as we live it, in every day life. Stephen Hawking famously argued questions, thus “what is the nature of reality? How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves?” traditional questions for philosophy. In Thiago’s imagery and text, I sense an overriding willingness to sacrifice physics and mathematics to uphold an intuitively satisfying understanding of the phenomena of life itself. Let her art guide you, as a companion for life.
All images ©M. Cecilia São Thiago
Chip designer, ARM – based in Cambridge, England but now owned by Japan’s Softbank, has decided to suspend all business with Huawei in accordance with US sanctions.
“ARM is the foundation of Huawei’s smartphone chip designs, so this is an insurmountable obstacle for Huawei,” said Geoff Blaber, from CCS Insight. “That said, with an abundance of companies in Huawei’s supply chain already having taken action to comply with the US order, Huawei’s ability to operate was already severely affected.”
ARM itself depends on some technology that underpins these powerful chips, that originate in the US.
The US government has banned all American firms from doing any business at all with Huawei, unless they have explicit permission. Like a dominos effect, Huawei has also lost access to US computer chips from Intel, Google’s Android operating system.
On 20 May, US government officials issued a 90 day reprieve on some of the restrictions in order to try to minimise immediate disruption but ARM believes that this temporary licence does not apply to them.
As it stands for now, ARM’s suspension of business with Huawei could be interpreted as the ‘fatal blow’. These chips also power Huawei’s 5G base stations, affecting the mobile network business (and representing the cybersecurity dispute). As the company will not be able to source Intel or ARM chips at all, their computer business will also struggle.
Huawei are confident the situtation can be resolved.
News just in is that there are rumours that drone manufacturer DJI is also about to be penalised in this dispute… more follows
At the time of writing, the financial markets are gripped with tension as the talks continue to escalate between Beijing and Washington, all eyes are on Trump’s next move.
Following on from our news story yesterday, The Department of Commerce has announced a 90 day reprieve to an import ban against Huawei. The company now has a Temporary General License to engage with U.S. vendors on a limited basis — in this case, Google will be allowed to provide software updates to Huawei for its Android phones while Huawei’s component suppliers will be able to finish deliveries for previously-made orders. It will also give telcos dependent on Huawei products time to potentially find alternative solutions.
This period of grace allows Huawei time to source alternative sources for its US made components. Huawei spent $11 billion last year to procure them. Nikkei reports that Huawei has built a stockpile of US sourced components, these it predicts will last up to 12 months.
More on this story as it develops…
I’ll be reporting live at the Honor Global Launch today at Battersea Evolution today, where we are expecting two phones to be announced, the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro … news to follow.
I am looking forward to attending the global launch of the brand new HONOR 20 Series at Battersea Evolution, London, SW8 tomorrow afternoon. HONOR are Huawei’s sub-brand and I was saddened this morning to read, in conjunction with my press invitation, a notice from Google cutting Huawei’s access to key Android apps and services following the United States’ move to blacklist the tech company. Essentially, Google has ceased to provide software and support to Huawei as part of President Trump’s blacklisting of the company and affiliates.
So, what does this mean if you own, at the least, one of the 59 million Huawei or Honor smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2019? Well, you will still be able to use your smartphone, it means that Huawei has to supply its own updates from SOSP to the version of Android running on its phones, rather than Google’s updates. It does this anyway, for its own domestic market in China. But it does mean that any new additions Google make to Android via their Google Play Services framework, will no longer be available to Huawei for its western phones.
Huawei apparently were not taken by surprise by this announcement and are said to have had a Plan B in place for a while, which includes working on its own operating system, they already have this in place in their smartwatches.
But this is an extremely bad day for Huawei, not only for their smartphones but also to their computer business…watch this space for further updates…
Read moreHuawei Announcement Regarding Google’s Blacklisting
Huawei, the global technology leader, has today launched “Fashion Flair”, a new smartphone based approach to fashion design that combines the power of smartphone Artificial Intelligence (AI) with creative human flair to generate unique fashion designs of any style. To support the launch of “Fashion Flair”, Huawei partnered with Anna Yang, Creative Director and founder of fashion label ANNAKIKI, to undertake and complete the world’s first 20 piece fashion collection. The collection was unveiled at the iconic superStudio+ in Milan on 9th May 2019.
Read moreHuawei Presents the First Ever AI Driven Fashion Collection
Huawei’s new Android smartphone is aimed at photography buffs and features a new tri-camera array, or quad-camera, if you include the separate ToF (Time of Flight) sensor that’s used to measure the subject/object distance for AF and the faux-bokeh effects.
We were able to get a P30 Pro in for a closer look.
The Huawei P30 Pro continues its association with the German high-end photo brand Leica, and it’s not just a licensing deal. It is according to Leica a synergistic effort, it’s been designed from scratch; it is not the same triple-camera array as found on the P20 Pro.
Before delving into the camera spec’s, impressive as they are, it’s worth mentioning a little bit about the device itself.
This week, it is the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain, a four day showcase for the manufacturers of smartphones to announce and promote their new devices. Last week Samsung of course announced their new folding smartphone, the Galaxy Fold and yesterday, Huawei announced theirs. It is called the Mate X and I cannot wait to test this incredible device.
Richard Yu, is the CEO of Huawei and having watched several of his live performances, I know it’s always very exciting. Yu, contemplated the question ““How can we bring the more big innovation to this smartphone industry?” and to be honest, I completely understand. Huawei products are really very good. The Mate X will sell for $2,600 and it goes on sale around summer time this year. That’s actually more than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, which is priced at $2,000.
What’s really interesting about the Huawei Mate 10 is the way the screen wraps around the outside of the device, rather than fold inside when it’s closed. This excites me, a lot. Yu explained that Huawei engineers spent almost three years perfectly the Mate 10 hinge, so it doesn’t leave a gap when closed.
I am fully aware of the cloud hanging over Huawei and I only hope it lifts soon, because once you experience their products, you will completely support my view on their innovation, it’s incredibly exciting.
Read moreHuawei Announces 5G Folding Smartphone with New Folding Screen