14 DAY TRIAL // Despite Huawei officials saying on several occasions that the United States government shouldn’t underestimate its capabilities, it looks like the ban blocking the company from using products developed by American firms is already generating a major impact.
A report from South China Morning Post reveals that Huawei has already reduced the number of orders it placed at suppliers, and Foxconn appears to be the most notable one.
Specifically, Foxconn has already stopped some production lines in order to deal with the reduced orders, only a few months after actually hiring temporary workers to meet Huawei’s production goals.
Details are missing on what models could be impacted by the lowered production, but the adjusted output is clearly a consequence of Huawei’s struggle to deal with the executive order signed by President Donald Trump in mid-May.
Overtaking Samsung
According to the order, Huawei can no longer use products belonging to American companies, including here Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows. As a result, Huawei is working on its own operating system in an attempt to reduce the impact the ban might have on its business.
Huawei, however, admitted that it may no longer be able to meet its goal of overtaking Samsung and becoming the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer by the end of 2020.
Zhao Ming, president of Huawei’s Honor brand, recently suggested that the target is uncertain now, albeit the Chinese tech giant isn’t yet ruling out the possibility of still becoming the world’s top phone maker.
“As the new situation has emerged, it is too early to say whether we are able to achieve the goal,” Zhao said.
Earlier this week, top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo projected a massive drop for Huawei without an operating system to power new phone models, saying that he expects a somewhat decline even if the company releases its own platform by the end of the year.