Huawei came to the fore with the Mate 60 series by not only offering a new product, but also a different approach in terms of production and supply chain. The company’s success, which has ranged from the production difficulties of the Mate 60 series to impressive sales figures, is now facing a new challenge: Supply and demand.Huawei grew by 90 percent
According to recent research, Huawei has become the most popular company in the Chinese smartphone market, as its Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro family continues to outperform its competitors, especially Apple’s iPhone 15 models. New data from Counterpoint Research shows that China’s year-over-year smartphone growth averaged 11 percent, but of all operating brands, Huawei showed the most impressive growth, reaching 90 percent in October. The special 7nm Kirin 9000S chip that powers all Mate 60 models has a big part in this.
Although Huawei’s massive growth is very positive for the company, there appear to be difficulties in meeting the large demand. Huawei’s decision to introduce a pre-order system for the Mate 60 Pro stemmed from its inability to meet increasing demand. The basis of the problem of not being able to meet the demand lies in the advanced Kirin 9000s processor. The problem on the supply side is so big that Huawei has launched a subscription program for the Mate 60 Pro, promising delivery within 90 days of ordering.
2.4 million sales from Mate 60 series
Despite all these obstacles, the Mate 60 Pro has achieved remarkable success. According to Counterpoint data, the series achieved domestic sales of 2.4 million units within eight weeks of launch. This figure is particularly impressive given the backdrop of US trade sanctions with which Huawei is grappling.The Mate 60 series, especially the Pro model, has become a symbol of Huawei’s resilience. However, the successful continuation of this symbol depends on the semiconductor capabilities of Huawei and China. The Kirin 9000s are manufactured by China’s SMIC and seem to be struggling to keep up with demand. On the other hand, Huawei and SMIC need to figure out how to break the 7nm barrier and produce even more advanced smartphone chipsets. Otherwise, this increase in popularity may be short-lived.
Currently, none of these companies have access to state-of-the-art EUV machines that would allow them to overcome this obstacle, so they need to find something quickly. Perhaps Huawei and SMIC can improve the Kirin 9000S further and rename the SoC when it launches for the P70 next year. Time will tell us all this.
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