Huawei has no plans of selling its smartphone business: Ren Zhengfei

Some time ago, we reported that Huawei was planning to sell its Mate and P brand of flagship smartphones to a consortium of investors backed by the U.S. Government. Huawei vehemently denied the report and said that it had no such plans. Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei reaffirmed the same thing in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

The change of administration in the United States Government seems to have reinvigorated Huawei's hope of saving its slowly dying smartphone business. The U.S. is reconsidering Huawei's position in the entity list, although nothing concrete has come out of that yet. However, Zhengfei is a bit pessimistic on that front and thinks that getting out of the entity list is "extremely difficult". The CEO also threw some praise Apple's way and called the iPhone 12 the world's best smartphone.

Even if Huawei somehow manages to find its way out of the dreaded entity list, market conditions aren't particularly ideal for a smartphone comeback. Semiconductor manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung are swamped with orders. Hence, securing a steady supply of silicon will be a problem. Huawei will have to rely on companies such as SMIC, (also on the entity list) for their silicon requirements. That is why there is a slim chance that Huawei will divest some more assets to keep itself afloat.

Furthermore, Zhengfei's carefully-crafted statement says that Huawei doesn't plan on selling its smartphone business. That statement technically correct. Only a part of its smartphone business is expected to go under the hammer, not the whole thing. Besides, Huawei also denied its sale of Honor until the very end, but we all know how that ended.