Huawei Technologies Co. scheduled a major consumer launch on the anniversary of one of its biggest milestones, the date the founder’s eldest daughter returned to China after three years of house arrest in Canada.
(Bloomberg) — Huawei Technologies Co. scheduled a major consumer launch on the anniversary of one of its biggest milestones, the date the founder’s eldest daughter returned to China after three years of house arrest in Canada.
Meng Wanzhou, now one of three top executives at the company, touched down to a triumphant welcome on Sept. 25 2021, emerging from detention over fraud charges raised in the US. She flew home after Beijing and Washington struck a deal. The Shenzhen-based electronics firm has chosen that date for its next showcase of personal electronics.
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The star of the show is likely to be Huawei’s Mate 60 smartphone series. The device stirred excitement in China and concern in the US after a detailed analysis revealed a made-in-China chip that signaled a potential breakthrough against Washington’s sanctions around advanced technology.
Huawei introduced the gadget on Aug. 29 with zero fanfare, the same week that US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited China. A week and a half later, Huawei quietly started pre-orders for a Mate 60 Pro+ and Mate X5 foldable device — without detailing a final price for the Pro+ or key specifications of the foldable.
“We’ve got good shows for you, one after the other,” consumer division chief Richard Yu said in a repost of Huawei’s announcement on the Weibo social service.
The Sept. 25 event gives the company a chance to answer pressing questions about the technology in its new devices, including whether or not they’re capable of 5G wireless speeds. The US government has begun an official probe into the chip, which experts say was made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., which like Huawei is blacklisted by the US and restricted from accessing American technology.
The discovery of the chip set off a debate in Washington about the efficacy of sanctions intended to contain a geopolitical rival and coincided with a move in China to expand a ban on the use of iPhones in government-backed agencies and state companies.
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