The names of the top two mobile OEMs in the world may not change anytime soon. Samsung and Huawei will keep their rankings. Samsung doesn’t have to worry about Huawei taking over yet especially since the US trade ban is still in effect, messing up a lot of plans. The brand can’t enter the United States. A number of American firms were asked to cut ties with the Chinese OEM. Google made the first move in May last year and so other big companies also followed.
Fast forward to a year later, the US trade ban is still enforced. Some restrictions may be eased though as we shared yesterday. US government may allow American firms to work with Huawei on 5G. We’ll just have to wait for an official announcement.
We know Huawei has started to look for alternative suppliers and technology. You see, even other non-US based companies that use American tech are being asked to apply for a license. Nothing is definite yet but those businesses will be affected.
TSMC has already stopped taking orders from Huawei. That is a big blow to the company but it’s also confident it can still survive even without business with Huawei.
Rumor has it Huawei will just make its own or depend on local semiconductor equipment suppliers. Samsung can also supply chips to Huawei apart from the memory chips and OLED panels. It seems ideal but Samsung may not do the honor.
We’re not sure why exactly but Huawei needs to make a major decision where to source other supplies. If true, then we’ll recommend Spreadtrum or MediaTek.
