For the first time, Chinese telecom Huawei reported a quarterly revenue decrease, reported MyBroadband. The company’s revenue fell 11 percent to $33.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Overall, Huawei’s sales grew by 3.8 percent year-over-year, with profits increasing by 3.2 percent, a “marginal growth,” according to KPMG.
The U.S sanctions placed on Huawei are being blamed for the drop, according to MyBroadband, with smartphone shipments decreasing by 42 percent in the final quarter of 2020. The company is emerging from its most challenging year on record due to Trump-administration sanctions which squelched its smartphone business and hindered advances into chipmaking and 5G networking.
“The global supply chain Huawei heavily relies on has been disrupted,” said Rotating Chairman Ken Hu. “I don’t know who will benefit from it but definitely not the industry.”
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei directed the company toward new growth areas such as smart agriculture, healthcare, and electric cars since the sanctions were put in place. There’s also speculation that Huawei is exploring automotive technology or designing and assembling entire cars, already testing autonomous driving and driver-car interaction technologies with several car manufacturers, reported MyBroadband.
As previously reported by Inside Towers, another revenue stream Huawei is devising is charging Apple and Samsung “reasonable” fees for access to 5G patents. Huawei bills itself as the largest owner of 5G patents in the world.
Reader Interactions