Nemanja – stock.adobe.com
After gaining independence in 2020, Chinese smartphone maker HONOR has released the world’s thinnest inward-folding smartphone HONOR Magic V. According to Ming Zhao, CEO of HONOR Device Co, Ltd., the company is focusing efforts on bringing innovations to consumers on global markets in 2022 and expects there will be no R&D bottleneck in the next five years. Zhao also hopes that the global sales volume of HONOR will double in 2022.
Why it matters
According to a Counterpoint Research report in April 2022, HONOR is currently the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in China. According to Ming Zhao, among around 12,000 staff at HONOR, over 50% of them are R&D personnel. Additionally, HONOR operates more than 100 innovation labs and six R&D centres around the world, including France and Japan.
Zhao also revealed that HONOR has teamed up with over 200 major carriers and channel partners, and 98 of them are in Europe to distribute its products on a global scale. In addition to selling HONOR 50 in 49 countries, the company is planning to offer a larger variety of products to the rest of the world in 2022, including the HONOR Magic Series, HONOR N Series, and HONOR X Series.
Context
Founded in 2013, HONOR was a smartphone brand owned by Huawei, providing smartphone handsets, tablets, and wearables targeting young consumers. In November 2020, the brand was sold to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd, a majority state-owned company in Shenzhen.
