Huawei’s Honor brand breaks out in Britain as Chinese smartphone makers buck Europe’s slowdown

Honor, one of the two smartphone brands owned by Huawei Technologies, has launched its latest flagship model in Europe, a market where it is seeing rapid growth in shipments amid a decline among established brands like Samsung and Apple.

The Chinese brand, which provides cost-effective smartphone handsets targeting young consumers, launched its Honor 10 in Britain on Tuesday. The new model features similar artificial intelligence (AI) technologies seen in Huawei’s flagship P20 series, but comes with a starting price of £399.99 (US$541), a notable discount to other premium phones sold in the country. The Huawei P20 series start from £599 while Samsung’s S9 series and Apple’s iPhone X are priced from £739 and £999 respectively.

Honor’s British sales surged 200 per cent year on year in the first quarter while its total sales in international markets, excluding China, have more than doubled in the same period, according to the company.

“We believe the recipe for success is simple – give consumers a really good product,” Honor president Zhao Ming said in a statement. “We want to co-create a new lifestyle with young people worldwide. We listen to them, we bounce ideas around with them, and we cheer for them. They are our inspiration.”

The new Honor phone will first be sold in western European markets including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, countries which experienced big drops in smartphone shipments in the first quarter. Shipments in western Europe declined 13.9 per cent to 30.1 million units in the first quarter, compared with an unprecedented 6.3 per cent drop for all of Europe, with British, French and German markets leading the declines with 29.6 per cent, 23.2 per cent and 16.7 per cent drops respectively, according to a Canalys research report issued last week.

Flagship smartphone features have been increasingly commoditised by budget brands, which are bringing these previously high end specifications to mid-market models. Brands like Honor and Xiaomi have been instrumental in driving shipments of phones with features such as dual and triple cameras, which grew over 150 per cent year on year in the first quarter, according to Canalys.