BEIJING, Sept 11 (Askume) – Huawei’s new three-fold smartphone has sparked national pride in China, with supporters on social media saying:Despite US sanctions, Huawei still has it . Apple is finished
The Chinese tech giant launched the industry’s first tri-fold phone, the Mate XT, on Tuesday, just hours afterApple has launched its artificial intelligence-enhanced iPhone 16 series.
Both the Mate XT and iPhone 16 will be available on September 20, but the Mate XT is expected to be available only in China.
“Apple didn’t fall, but Huawei rose again,” commented one user on Weibo, China’s equivalent of X.
Another netizen wrote: “Times are changing. US sanctions are in vain.”
A video showing Apple Store employees in China visiting a Huawei store to watch a Huawei product launch event also became the second most searched topic on Weibo with 91 million views and over 6,600 comments within 13 hours.
The launch of the Mate XT coincides with Huawei’s re-emergence in the 5G high-end smartphone market with last year’s Mate 60 series and this year’s high-end Pura series of mobile phones using domestic semiconductors.
All of this is seen in China as a victory against US sanctions that have blocked the company’s access to advanced American chips and other technology since 2019.
Washington views Huawei as a threat to national security, a charge the company denies. US sanctions have since banned the export of advanced American chips to all Chinese companies, as Washington seeks to hamper the progress of Chinese military technology.
Huawei fans also pointed out that Apple has not yet announced an AI partner for the iPhone 16 product range in China, and the company’s AI software Apple Intelligence will only be available in Chinese next year.
Despite national pride, the Mate XT’s starting price of 19,999 yuan has been widely criticised as being out of reach for ordinary consumers and appearing insensitive at a time when economic growth is weak and ordinary people face financial instability.
Versions with more sophisticated features such as more memory cost up to 23,999 yuan ($3,300).
A Weibo poll on the Mate XT showed that only 966 of the 9,200 respondents said they planned to buy it. Over 4,700 people said they were disappointed by the price, while 3,500 said they were not considering buying it at the moment.
“No matter how much I like this product, the price is too high for me,” said a man surnamed Xu, who said he was a loyal fan of Huawei, at a Huawei store in Beijing.
“Maybe Huawei isn’t really targeting people like me,” he said.
(1 USD = 7.1138 RMB)
