SHENZHEN (CHINA) – Chinese consumers are in a hurry to buy smartphones from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd that features its high-end Kirin chips. This decision was made as they feared control regarding the firm’s access to US technology that will soon put an end to the production of its premium handsets.
Phone vendors in Huaqiangbei, located in the southern city of Shenzhen, said prices for the new and used Huawei phones had increased steadily in the past month, by around 400 to 500 yuan on average.
The Porsche design model of Huawei’s flagship Mate 30 was being sold for 14,000 yuan (1,599.97 pounds), from 10,000 yuan in January, one vendor said. The phone was available at a similar price on online marketplace Taobao.
A vendor, who gave her name as Xiao, said, “The Huawei phones are getting expensive but that’s supply and demand. If people like the brand, they’ll pay more – and who knows how good the chips they’ll have in the future will be?”
The US government last year tried to stop most US companies from holding business with Huawei, saying the company was eventually answerable to the Chinese government. However, Huawei has denied time and again that it was a national security risk.
Last month, the United States further made restrictions so that its access to commercially available chips stumbled. This prompted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) to put an end to shipping wafers to Huawei.
Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business, subsequently said making of its Kirin chips will be stopped on September 15 because of measures from the US to scrap down its chipmaking unit HiSilicon from vital technology.
HiSilicon depends on US firms’ software such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc for designing its chips, and outsources production to TSMC.
A Huawei spokesman told the firm continues to operate according to demand.
Analyst Will Wong at consultancy IDC said its chip inventory is likely to last through the first half of next year.
“One option for them to have Kirin chips last longer is to ship less for the rest of the year,” Wong said.