Tech war: Huawei ups smartphone sales target amid Mate 60 Pro popularity, as it maintains silence on chip details

Huawei Technologies has upped its sales target for the second half of 2023 by 20 per cent to give a full-year total sales volume of 40 million smartphones, buoyed by the popularity of its recently released Mate 60 series, according to a report by Chinese newspaper Securities Daily, citing unidentified sources from the Shenzhen-based company.

Huawei, which has been denied access to advanced chips involving US-origin technologies since 2020, has been riding a wave of patriotic fervour since the release of its 5G-capable Mate 60 Pro, which comes with a powerful chip despite the tough US sanctions.

TechInsights, a Canadian semiconductor intelligence firm, has identified China’s biggest foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) as the maker of the Kirin 9000s chip inside the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, based on a teardown analysis. Neither SMIC or Huawei has commented on the matter.

Huawei declined to comment on its new handset sales target.

Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro is expected to provide a tough challenge for Apple in China, with the California-based tech giant releasing its new iPhone 15 range on Tuesday. Although the country is still home to thousands of loyal Apple consumers, rising geopolitical tensions and a partial ban by Beijing on government use of iPhones have raised the stakes.

At a launch event on Tuesday for the Huawei-supported new AITO M7 electric vehicle, executive director Richard Yu Chengdong, who has been dubbed “Big Mouth” by some Chinese netizens for his tendency to be outspoken, made no reference to the Mate 60 Pro.