That's Huawei we roll: Firm claims it's slinging 100k of its pricey, China-exclusive Mate X foldable phones each month

The success of the Huawei Mate X has always been in doubt. But, improbably, sales have actually been fairly decent, with the Chinese tech giant claiming to be flogging 100,000 each month (in Chinese). That’s not too bad, considering the unfortunate geopolitical circumstances Huawei finds itself in. Announced at MWC 2019, the …

[Charlie Clark]

Price versus average earnings

The entry-level Mate X model retails at roughly $2,500 — or nearly eight times the monthly minimum wage in Shenzhen, where the company is headquartered.

Yes, it's expensive so average earnings are not really relevant for comparison. More important are the number of people in China earning say USD 200,000 a year, that can afford such status symbols. This might only be a tiny percentage of the working population to still be a significant number of total sales. For example, assume there are around 800 million working Chinese, you're looking at around 0.25 % of these keen on having the latest shiny, shiny, ie. a high-end flagship every year, especially if it's something that other people don't have.

[Youngone]

Samsung Executive

A Samsung rep later explained to the Yonhap news agency that Sohn may have confused sales figures with sales targets.

Maybe he doesn't know the difference. It wouldn't surprise me.

Of course he may have just been lying. That wouldn't surprise me either.

[Anonymous Coward]

Huawei has advantages

huawei comes with some advantages that make it very appealing!

1) no access to the google store, they should be promoting this as it's the main reason i want one.

2) very limited murkin tech inside, much less spying potenial.

3) It will piss off the orange ape and its inbred family.

4) it's a very good phone, just too bloody expensive, will get cheaper when the next one comes out.

[stuartnz]

Re: Huawei has advantages

Re

"very limited murkin tech inside, much less spying potential."

"Different spies" is all. Ask the Uighurs about how spyware-free their Chinese phones are. I have several friends with good reason to keep their data away from Chinese prying eyes. There ain't no such thing as a no-spy handset, you just get to choose WHO'S spying on you.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: Huawei has advantages

Apple?

The best bet, if you really want a smartphone, is probably Apple. Too expensive for me, but I'd have one if I was flush.

[Barry Rueger]

Meanwhile in Vancouver

Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou remains under house arrest. CBC Radio's ”Sanctioned" podcast has a new episode this week describing the pre-trial court room manoeuvring.