Huawei Mate 70 Series: Expected Sales Shortfall Amid Processor Concerns and Geopolitical Risks

Sales of Huawei Technologies’ new Mate 70-series smartphones are expected to fall short of demand. Analysts cite the weaker processor performance and supply chain risks due to geopolitical tensions as reasons for this forecast.

The Mate 70 was launched at an event in Shenzhen. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, claimed the new series is the “most powerful Mate phones in history.” However, he did not provide details about the processor or why the release was delayed until after Singles’ Day, the biggest shopping festival of the year.

This launch emphasizes the Mate 70’s artificial intelligence features and the HarmonyOS Next operating system. Huawei reports a 40% performance improvement over the previous Mate 60 series.

The Mate 70 series includes the Mate 70, Mate 70 Pro, Mate 70 Pro+, and Mate 70 RS. TechInsights reports these smartphones use the HiSilicon-designed Kirin 9010 and 9020 processors, which perform below the latest offerings from Qualcomm and MediaTek.

TechInsights analysts, Peng Peng and Linda Sui, stated, “Despite hardware improvements and new AI features, the delayed release and modest chipset updates could limit its sales potential.” They project Mate 70 sales will reach 3 million units this fourth quarter, which would be about 22% of Huawei’s total smartphone shipments during this period.