Huawei smartphones could be less appealing to consumers without in-house Kirin chips that compete with Qualcomm and Apple
- Huawei’s Kirin chips make smartphones such as the P40 and upcoming Mate 40 top-performers in areas like photography
- Huawei can work closely with Chinese chip suppliers, but it will lose some key advantages, analysts say
For fans of Huawei’s flagship phones like the Mate 30 and P40, the company has some bad news: it’s running out of Kirin processors.
Richard Yu, president of Huawei’s consumer business, shared the news last Friday, and it’s set to have big implications for the company’s smartphone business. Kirin chips are what allow Huawei to keep up with the likes of Qualcomm and Apple.
The loss is the result of US sanctions that prevent Huawei from contracting with companies that use US technology unless they receive a government license. This means subsidiary HiSilicon is no longer able to use design software from American companies like Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc. And it can no longer get chips from its key supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses US equipment.
Huawei is one of the few smartphone brands that design its own mobile processors, with most relying on solutions provided by big chip makers such as Qualcomm. The ability has allowed Huawei to tailor their chips specifically to the need of its devices.
Counterpoint analyst Ethan Qi said the in-house chips have provided Huawei with high-performance processors to achieve breakthroughs in technologies such as wireless connection, AI computing and image processing.
“Kirin had become a key driver of Huawei’s smartphone growth,” Qi said. “It seems Huawei has to gradually shift its future smartphone solutions to outside suppliers, including MediaTek and UNISOC, from next year, as the ban … is unlikely to be lifted in the short term.”
This will likely dampen Huawei’s growth prospects in China, he added, because Huawei will lose some of its advantage in introducing new features to the market.
By designing its own chips, Huawei has been able to beat competitors to new features. This has included AI-based image post-processing to improve high dynamic range (HDR) photography, object recognition and other features, according to Mo Jia, an analyst at market research firm Canalys.
“Huawei can optimise smartphone features tailored with its in-house chipset,” Jia said. He used Golden Snap as an example, a feature that removes unwanted passers-by and reflections from photos.
As a result, photography has been a particular point of pride for Huawei. The company even teamed up with prominent German camera brand Leica for its P-series smartphones.
Then there’s performance. Kirin processors have routinely received high marks from reviewers for keeping up with competitors like Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon chips and Apple’s A-series chips. But now the company will no longer have chips with the smallest transistors, which is what allows a processor to perform so well.
Running out of Kirin chips is just the latest blow for Huawei in the US-China tech war.
But patriotism isn’t the only factor. Designing its own chips gave Huawei the ability to control when it launched its premium smartphones, Jia said. This is now at stake.
“If Huawei has to switch to Qualcomm or [MediaTek], this advantage will also extinguish,” Jia said.
Huawei can still cooperate closely with other chip makers to get tailored chipsets, Jia said, but its autonomy will be limited. To overcome this predicament, Huawei will have to develop other star features, just as it once did with its camera system, he said.
