Can Huawei’s Trifold Phone Challenge Apple’s New Launches?

Apple just enjoyed a successful product launch event that unveiled its new line of phones, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, as well as its much-awaited artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Apple Intelligence and others.

However, it’s not been all good for the company in the last few days, as challenges arose in the form of regulatory issues and a lack of technology partners and rival product launches in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market.

So, what issues are hampering a perfect week for Apple? Let’s explore!

What Problems Is Apple Facing?

 

• In an allegation that stretches back to 2016, the European Union’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager accused Ireland of enabling Apple to benefit from illegal tax benefits, which diverted investments from other countries.

• Now, as the EU (European Union) looks to crackdown on such “sweetheart deals”, the tech giant has lost the long-running court battle, resulting in the antitrust body ordering Apple to pay €13 billion or $14.4 billion in back taxes to Ireland.

• However, the ruling didn’t go down well with Apple and the company expressed its disappointment with the final verdict, which can’t be appealed, saying, “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to.”

• [Contd.] “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US.”

• Ahead of this, Apple faced backlash from customers across social media platforms as the company announced that they were discontinuing some of its older phones including the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro‌ Max and the iPhone 13, following the launch of the iPhone 16 series.

• However, this also saw a $100 drop in price for Apple’s iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.

• Apple also did away with its FineWoven material, which wasn’t very well received from the get-go, citing poor performance.

• Ahead of this, the company is facing numerous challenges in the world’s biggest smartphone market – China.

• While Apple’s AI capabilities are set to kick-in in beta next month on US phones, the company doesn’t have an AI partner in China to power the iPhone 16 series.

• Furthermore, the company’s AI platform, Apple Intelligence, will offer its services in Chinese language only in 2025, drawing criticism from users for not enabling the product’s AI features.

• Users on Weibo, a prominent Chinese microblogging platform and social media site, drew over 11.33 million views for the hashtag that “iPhone 16 Chinese version doesn't support AI yet”.

• This also saw users post over 1,500 comments, including one that read “What's the point of buying it if you can't use AI?” and another saying, “Without AI as the biggest selling point, it should be half price.”

• Apple’s biggest challenge comes from Huawei’s newly launched phone, which is the first of its kind trifold phone.

What Is Huawei’s New Trifold Phone About?

 

• Set to release on September 20, just like Apple’s new iPhone, the HUAWEI Mate XT has garnered a lot of attention from users in China.

• Having launched the option to pre-order the phone on September 7, over 4.6 million people have already signed up to purchase the phone.

• The phone comes with a 10.2-inch screen and a thickness of 3.6 millimeters when unfolded.

• When folded completely, it offers a screen size of 6.4 inches and allows users to a dual-screen mode that measures 7.9 inches.

• As for resolution, its single screen offers 2232 × 1008 pixels, dual screen 2232 × 2048 pixels and triple screen offers 2232 × 3184 pixels.

• It offers three versions: 16GB RAM + 256GB ROM (¥19,999 or around $2,800), 16GB RAM + 512GB ROM (¥21,999 or around $3,090) and 16GB RAM + 1TB ROM (¥23,999 or around $3,369), with the choice of black or red colors.

• The trifold phone offers a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle rear camera (supporting 8192 × 6144 pixels) and an 8-megapixel front camera (supporting 3264 × 2448 pixels).

• The phone also comes with AI capabilities, including text summarization, translation and editing, cloud-based content generation and image editing features.

• Huawei also offers a charger, car charger, USB Type-C data cable, its Freebuds 5 earphones, a rotating bracket protective case and more included in the package with the phone.

Do you think Huawei and other Chinese smartphone makers can eat away at Apple’s market share in China and leave it with a mountain to climb to retain a strong position in the Chinese smartphone market?

Let us know in the comments below!