The new company's smart display is designed to become a core element in the home IoT ecosystem.
Huawei officially said that it will start selling the Honor-branded smart TVs in three weeks.
Zhao Ming (赵明), President of Huawei's Honor brand, announced that the company will enter smart-TV market this August by launching a new product – Honor-branded smart display. This statement was made at the media communication conference on July 15.
“A few years ago, we made it clear that Honor and Huawei would not produce traditional TVs, because this industry in general is not very good,” said Mr. Zhao. “How to use science and technology in order to improve traditional industries and ignite breakthroughs in terms of quality, innovation and consumer experience? Our new smart display product line is a result of thinking over this question.”
Last week, the Honor’s executive posted a photo of his office on Weibo, showing his working environment. TV-like device, covered with a dog emoji on this picture, spurred a hot discussion about the new possible Huawei’s product.
Huawei was widely expected to enter the smart display segment this year. The issue of whether the telecom giant will shift to its own operating system (OS), Hongmeng, has been extensively discussed lately. As South China Morning Post reported, the new models are likely to operate on the new OS since a number of the company's high-level executives have publicly talked about Hongmeng’s multifunctionality in the past several month.
While still struggling with the repercussions of the trade conflicts, technological clashes and other macroeconomic shocks, Huawei makes various moves to optimize its businesses. Wall Street Journal reported this week that the firm is planning to carry out massive layoffs in the U.S.
With the size of over USD 6.5 billion, China is the second biggest smart home market in the world. There is a vast potential for the sector’s development in the country as the industry market penetration is extremely low at the date. Only 4.9% of the Chinese citizens use smart home devices, whereas in the U.S. – the biggest household appliances market worldwide – this indicator hit 32% last year.