Huawei to cut smartphone production by more than half this year

Huawei is reportedly planning to build around 70 to 80 million smartphones this year.

Huawei smartphone business (REUTERS)

Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei last week confirmed that the company won't be selling their smartphone business. It's also preparing to launch a new foldable smartphone and the flagship P50 series. But the company will be building far fewer phones than it did last year.

Huawei has informed component suppliers orders of around 70 to 80 million for the entire year, according to a report by Nikkei (via GSMArena). This would be a major decrease from the 189 million smartphone units it shipped last year. In 2019, Huawei had shipped 240 million smartphones. The decrease came after the US government under former president Donald Trump banned the company from using Google's Android services and key smartphone components. Huawei went on to develop its own HarmonyOS for its smartphones.

Huawei also sold its Honor smartphone business with the company's plans to focus only on premium phones. Huawei is also struggling to get 5G components for its smartphones. This according to some suppliers could decrease the number of units to 50 million.

The company is still on track to launch its foldable phone, Mate X2 on February 22. It's going for a Galaxy Fold-like design where the display folds inward. Huawei Mate X2 is also confirmed to run on the 5nm Kirin 9000 processor. It's also expected to launch the P50 series by March end. Huawei P50, P50 Pro and P50 Pro+ are expected, and these smartphones too will be powered by the Kirin 9000 processor. There are also reports of Huawei launching its first gaming console this year but nothing is official yet.