Huawei/Honor gaining traction to become world's largest smartphone maker

[dpham00]

Where's any guarantee US carriers will pick up Huawei products?

Will carriers appreciate and be able to align with EMUI or will a new slew of phones need to be carrier branded bloat on their version of Android?
The tide is turning away from carrier branded phones in my opinion.
Personally I would steer clear of carrier branding.

Huawei has some work to do in the complex US market.
Not to mention higher prices for offshore tech products coming to a store near you soon.

Huawei devices were sold by T-Mobile... Of course T-Mobile stopped selling them due to Huawei allegedly stealing proprietary technology from them... Probably doesn't help much when you allegedly steal from your carrier partners.

With that said they also made phone for att.

 

[Dconn1975]

I think carriers will eventually be forced to pick them up by who? All of us. Their customer base that grows daily. I agree with what one said that carrier branded phones aren't the best but on the opposite end of that they still control the majority of the market and will continue to do so for a long time to come. When customers force the carrier's hands to supply Huawei Honor which that will happen. Not tomorrow but down the road then you see a sluggish take off then it'll hit a boom and explode but only if Huawei plays their hand they have been dealt right. They don't have much room for error I will definitely say that but at the same time the door is as wide open as it's going to ever be for Huawei which is when you hope and root for them to know how to play poker. Timing is everything before they go all in. My thing is ego. Ego and money typically are always mentioned together. I really like Huawei honors product a lot. I hope they play it right but I will tell you quickly if they leave their roots and think they have to compete price wise with Samsung and Google then they will loose me and a lot of other sensible customers. They have already with solid proof produced a flagship phone the Honor 8 at a value to the customer. How can they ignore common sense economics and leave that strategy? If they do then they deserve to not crack the top 7 which is what will happen. Keep doing what they are doing bc it's working very well. Sure small price increases are expected but they should still be the top value Android Flagship phone company and they can be and there is nothing wrong with that. Customers aren't going to think if they don't pay $700 for a phone and pay $499 or $550 instead that it's lacking when the proof is in the product to show it not. They will love to save the money. This is simple. Greed, they loose. Stay their course they go straight to the top. It really is that simple.

 

[orangecroc]

They'll likely never work with t-mobile, as they have counter sued that t-mobile broke patent 4g agreements.
While I am against carrier phones due to bloatware, that make phones even cheaper. Buying honor allowed me to have unlimited calls and messaging with 30gb of data for nearly £20 less a month than a pixel or top end samsung, saving me over £500, and that's with a carrier that supplies unlocked phones!

 

[Morty2264]

@orangecroc, I agree with you - I, too, am slowly becoming anti-carrier phones due to not only the bloatware, but the fact that they lock you in to a two-year contract with no hope of escape! LOOL okay, maybe it's not that bleak; but that's certainly how I felt with my last device. But when I bought my Honor 8, I did realize that there was much less carrier bloatware - I have maybe one Rogers app. Also, congratulations on your savings!

 

[dpham00]

@orangecroc, I agree with you - I, too, am slowly becoming anti-carrier phones due to not only the bloatware, but the fact that they lock you in to a two-year contract with no hope of escape! LOOL okay, maybe it's not that bleak; but that's certainly how I felt with my last device. But when I bought my Honor 8, I did realize that there was much less carrier bloatware - I have maybe one Rogers app. Also, congratulations on your savings!

Does any carrier still have two year service contracts? Verizon,att and T-Mobile don't.

 

[Morty2264]

Does any carrier still have two year service contracts? Verizon,att and T-Mobile don't.

I live in Canada - we still have two-year contracts here!

 

[dpham00]

I live in Canada - we still have two-year contracts here!

Ah OK. Probably one of the few places that do

 

[orangecroc]

Yes, 2 year contract. But I have been with my carrier for nearly ten years now and would never change, I am really happy with them. I can still buy an unlocked phone mid contract and use my sim card.

 

[Wildo6882]

Does any carrier still have two year service contracts? Verizon,att and T-Mobile don't.

Basically everyone still does, it just isn't technically a "two year contract". Most of the phone payment plans are for at least 24 months, some 30 months. Most people won't upgrade until their phone is paid off, so they're basically locked in to a two year contract. And even if they upgrade at a year or whatever their carrier lets them upgrade at, they still have to turn in the phone or pay it off, just to get locked back into a deal with their carrier for a new phone.

Pretty much 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other...

 

[dpham00]

Basically everyone still does, it just isn't technically a "two year contract". Most of the phone payment plans are for at least 24 months, some 30 months. Most people won't upgrade until their phone is paid off, so they're basically locked in to a two year contract. And even if they upgrade at a year or whatever their carrier lets them upgrade at, they still have to turn in the phone or pay it off, just to get locked back into a deal with their carrier for a new phone.

Pretty much 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other...

That's why i mentioned service contract which no longer exists at least in the USA. What you are referring to is a finance contract , phone payment plan or whatever wherein the carrier finances the phone at zero interest over the life of the loan. This is just like you going to best buy and financing a TV.

They have similarities but people lambasted the service contracts , so carriers gave you the dpp option. But guess what, it was a trick because carriers wanted to get rid of service contracts anyway.

And honestly what other option is there? You either pay outright ( new or used), pay over a specified period of time for the phone, or get the phone for a subsidized price, committing to a certain period of time to the carrier.

 

[Wildo6882]

That's why i mentioned service contract which no longer exists at least in the USA. What you are referring to is a finance contract , phone payment plan or whatever wherein the carrier finances the phone at zero interest over the life of the loan. This is just like you going to best buy and financing a TV.

They have similarities but people lambasted the service contracts , so carriers gave you the dpp option. But guess what, it was a trick because carriers wanted to get rid of service contracts anyway.

And honestly what other option is there? You either pay outright ( new or used), pay over a specified period of time for the phone, or get the phone for a subsidized price, committing to a certain period of time to the carrier.

I know it's different. But at the same time, it's the same. It typically doesn't save the consumer much money over the previous two year contract, and most people don't even know that they can leave at any point in time. So the effect is the same. That's really all I was getting at.

 

[dpham00]

I know it's different. But at the same time, it's the same. It typically doesn't save the consumer much money over the previous two year contract, and most people don't even know that they can leave at any point in time. So the effect is the same. That's really all I was getting at.

If you don't know then that means that you either didn't ask or didn't read the terms...

If you didn't read what you signed then don't complain later.

 

[Wildo6882]

If you don't know then that means that you either didn't ask or didn't read the terms...

If you didn't read what you signed then don't complain later.

I'm not complaining or fighting about it. I'm just saying that the payment plans are still basically two year contracts. That's all. It's essentially the same out of pocket for the consumer and the average consumer will still upgrade only at two years.

 

[dpham00]

I'm not complaining or fighting about it. I'm just saying that the payment plans are still basically two year contracts. That's all. It's essentially the same out of pocket for the consumer and the average consumer will still upgrade only at two years.

Well the big difference is that carriers took the subsidy out of the plan price with the current plans so you are saving about $20 per line on service when not on subsidized pricing. That gives consumers more options to either keep their phone longer or buy a used phone or buy an unlocked phone to save money. Of course if you upgrade every two years then it won't make much difference in price.

Also you can payoff a payment plan at any time depending on carrier. For service contract, you cannot pay off the remainder of the contract without cancelling service.

 

[Wildo6882]

Well the big difference is that carriers took the subsidy out of the plan price with the current plans so you are saving about $20 per line on service when not on subsidized pricing. That gives consumers more options to either keep their phone longer or buy a used phone or buy an unlocked phone to save money. Of course if you upgrade every two years then it won't make much difference in price.

Also you can payoff a payment plan at any time depending on carrier. For service contract, you cannot pay off the remainder of the contract without cancelling service.

Yeah, I definitely agree. And for us geeks, it's actually a nice thing. But all I was meaning is that for most of the public, it's essentially the same thing. And you and I both know that carriers wouldn't be doing this out of the goodness of their hearts - it helps their bottom line too.

 

[orangecroc]

I generally like service plans, I get my phone with no upfront cost at the start of the 2 years. Normally I buy an unlocked phone a year later, then when the upgrade comes around I sign on again and get a phone with no upfront cost again on the upgrade.
I think it helps that I am very happy with my carrier service, and especially now you can get phones like the honor 8 for so little when you want an unlocked phone mid contract.

 

[Dconn1975]

Phone carriers aren't going away any time soon and certainly not in our life time. 98 percent of the general market are most likely with a major carrier and have never once thought to break free and say use cricket or some other independent non tied to service provider like a lot of us have done on here. I too was guilty for a long time always being with a carrier. When mobile tech started to become a passion is when I left the carrier world so I could constantly start trying out different devices by way of unlocked phones. I deeply enjoy testing out new devices and experiencing different software and interfaces. The only way for my prediction of Huawei Honor to have a chance to come through largely rides on the top or major carriers to pick them up which equals immediate growth bc majority of people who use a mobile phone are indeed with a carrier so I'm quite sure Huawei Honors goal here is to be picked up by the top US carriers as that then opens up the majority of the market to use or test out their devices which I believe will lead them to eventually surpass Samsung or become in the top two household Android names and of course too if they stay on course with a proven track record of producing a high end flag ship device to be at least 30 percent less in price compared to their biggest competitors which will most likely be google and Samsung. If they did one second raise their prices to that of both of those others then no way they get to the top. I see nothing wrong with taking advantage of a nitch within the market which they've proven already with the Honor 8 can be done. Samsung if they produced the same device as the honor 8, they would charge $600 to $699 and what Huawei Honor has shown is that the market is grossly inflated by big heads forgetting about their customers and solely competing with each other just to say they have the best device. I see nothing wrong with Huawei Honor staying their course to easily compete with those two but saving the customer 25 to 30 percent of their money because Huawei Honors product once in enough hands will easily prove and show that their device is equal to but at a much more affordable price. Unfortunately the realist in me sees Huawei Honor getting caught up in the big head competing factor and they will eventually cave and raise their prices so they can have bragging rights to officially compete. I use my Honor 8 every day and it's every bit equal to my iPhone 6s i had or my Moto Z Force I had but at almost a 35 to 40 percent price savings. Money always ruins a good thing. Anyways carriers are here to stay and Google and Samsung are going to keep grossly overpricing their product and the typical consumer will continued to grossly overpay unless Huawei Honor steps in and capitalizes on that very note and shows that typical consumer that he or she can actually get the same high end spec device $250 dollars cheaper and actually save money. I doubt Huawei Honor will ever take that path but long term if they did, they would be at the top outselling both of those others by double quantity therefore enforcing their long term stability and continued growth rather than making a lot of money for a little while then to eventually drop so far back down that they would probably just give up long term on the US market all together. Hoping they will stick to their core values bc if they do they definitely will be one of the top two or three in two to three years.