Honor May Not Be as Free From Huawei as It Claims | WIRED UK Menu Chevron Search Facebook Twitter Email Facebook Twitter Email Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram LinkedIn
As I power up the two phones side by side, the Huawei Nova 9 and Honor 50 drive the point home. The deleterious effect of Huawei and Honor’s separation last year is clear. The practically identical-looking smartphones are like two puzzle pieces that can’t join. Both brands claw for the winning balance they struck in 2019, which offered Google support plus Huawei’s camera polish and world-class design. Neither is striking that balance now.
Honor was founded in 2013. Launching it as a sub-brand of Huawei, executives made liberal use of terms like “digital natives” and “digital nomads” while also saying Honor was like the Mini to Huawei’s BMW. The intent here was perhaps less about positioning Honor and more about framing Huawei as the not cheap alternative. In 2013, public perception of Chinese smartphones indeed included “cheap,” and creating Honor was a canny move to elevate Huawei by comparison.
Sure enough, if one brand has single-handedly changed the perception of Chinese smartphone makers over the last decade, it’s Huawei — and OPPO, Xiaomi, and Honor have all benefited.
Since sanctions by the US government have prevented Huawei from working with American companies, namely Google, thus crippling its smartphones in the West, Huawei has been diversifying. The latest rumor is that Huawei is working on an e-reader, which could add to its audio, computing, wellness, networking, smartwatch, TV, and, of course, phone and tablet lines. The further Huawei can get from relying on its non-Google phones outside China, the better. But where does all this leave Honor?
In November 2020, Huawei sold Honor to a majority Shenzhen state-owned company, Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology. In the sale, Honor lost access to Huawei’s IP, with more than 100,000 active patents held by Huawei at the end of 2020. Honor also won’t be able to tap into what’s seemed like an endless investment in R&D—more than $20 billion committed for 2021, a staggering amount, even for a business worth $136.23 billion.
This all sounds catastrophic, but for now Honor is actually riding high. We saw this coming to a degree. Without being shackled by US sanctions against Huawei, Honor can move more freely with Google Mobile Services back on its devices in the West. But, interestingly, its early success is in China, where Google doesn’t factor.
For the first time since August 2020, Honor hit the No. 3 spot for Chinese smartphone sales in August 2021, with its sales growing 18 percent month-on-month, putting it behind only Vivo and OPPO. Outside China, however, even with Google, the buying public is less convinced, with the brand failing to make the top five. Senior Counterpoint analyst Varun Mishra puts this down to loyalty in the mid-segment, coupled with the fact that “Honor will also have to rebuild its distribution network. Then, there are also intensifying component shortages, which will likely hinder Honor’s expansion in 2021.”
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