Huawei export ban claims another victim: Huawei’s $2,600 foldable smartphone

Enlarge / Huawei’s response to the export ban so far. (credit: KC Green / Ron Amadeo)

The Huawei export ban has claimed another victim. The embattled Chinese company told CNBC that it is now delaying perhaps its most anticipated product, the $2,600 Mate X foldable smartphone. Huawei’s official explanation is that it wants to avoid a Samsung Galaxy Fold-level launch disaster, so the company is holding the device back for more tuning. But the Trump administration’s export ban is undoubtedly a contributing factor. That policy has shut Huawei off from so many suppliers that it could not launch a new smartphone right now if it wanted to. Huawei cancelled a laptop launch just a few days ago, in fact.

The Mate X was originally scheduled for the middle of the year, with a rumored launch this month, but now CNBC reports that the Mate X launch will be delayed until September. Huawei doesn’t officially blame this delay on the export ban, instead telling CNBC it didn’t “want to launch a product to destroy our reputation.” CNBC writes that Huawei will use this delay to do “extra testing with mobile carriers around the world and developers to make sure their apps work when the device is fully unfolded.”

It is hard to believe Huawei’s official explanation here, especially in light of the laptop launch it canceled just a few days ago. The export ban means Huawei cannot ship new devices running US-made operating systems like Windows and Android, and the wide scope of US export regulations means many hardware components are off-limits, too. Huawei has not shown the capability to launch anything since the export ban went into effect.