AT&T Pulls Out of Deal To Sell China's Huawei Phones In the US (phonedog.com) 63
According to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T has walked away from a deal to sell China's Huawei smartphones in the U.S. Neither AT&T nor Huawei have commented on the matter, but the news is certainly going to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to picking up Huawei's flagship Mate 10. Prior to this report, Huawei was expected to announce that its flagship Mate 10 will launch on AT&T in 2018. PhoneDog reports: Huawei has a major presence internationally, with recent reports saying that it's the No. 3 smartphone brand in the world behind Apple and Samsung. The company hasn't made much of a dent in the U.S., though, despite the fact that it's been selling its phones unlocked in the U.S. for awhile now. This AT&T deal would've been big for Huawei, helping it to get its phones inside carrier stores and in front of U.S. consumers, the majority of which still buy their phones from their carriers. Now we'll have to wait and see if Huawei can strike a deal with another carrier or if it'll have to continue on in the unlocked market. A Huawei spokesperson only said "Huawei has proven itself by delivering premium devices with integrity globally and in the U.S. market."
going out on a limb... (Score:3)
I'm going to say that there were probably some "just because" terms in the agreement that made it too onerous or unprofitable for ATT to sign off on the deal. Folks accustomed to doing business with some of these Chinese firms that are private (but everyone knows there is a huge government interest) will recognize this for what it is. They wanted very rich terms and aren't accustomed to being told NO.
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AT&T probably couldn't get favorable terms where they wouldn't be stuck with excess inventory of unsellable Huawei phones.
The poorly received Amazon Fire phone is probably still fresh in their minds. A $199 Fire phone that sold for $0.99 two months later [cnet.com].
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Wut? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why on Earth do I need AT&T to sell me a Huawei phone?
What is so hard about buying an unlocked phone? What is it about buying from a carrier that is preferable - in my experience it's horrible. They are slow and will give you a locked phone when you've paid for an unlocked phone, which you then spend countless hours getting them to fix.
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I guess it's cultural, people in 'Murica are used to buying "subsidized" phones from carriers. It is ultimately far more expensive than paying upfront, but paying in installments makes it less obvious if you're not paying attention.
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How about: it's a package of child rape, torture, mayhem, endangerment, organ theft, and medical fraud.
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Evidently not. I was presented with a locked phone purchased brand new from an AT&T store as an unlocked phone 3 years ago.
The hapless user (who travels) found the phone wouldn't work with alternative carrier SIM.
Getting AT&T to unlock it was a major undertaking. This is one of many reasons to hate AT&T.
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Indeed, its entirely cultural. Americans apparently want to pay premium prices only for those smartphones that are locked to one carrier, feature the carrier logo on the back cover and on the boot screen (see, we have brand loyalty, to our carrier), and which even in their unlocked state have no support for radio bands to use the device efficiently with any other carrier. We also love having long waiting times for OTA ROM updates, and we like having dozens upon dozens of apps and services that the carrier b
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Win! (Score:2)
Not MediaTek? (Score:2)
I can't immediately tell, but these Phones seem to have some variant that looks really similar to the MediaTek chips that BLU sells, only they seem to be called the Kirin. (Its like they made extremely high Quality MediaTek CPUs and Mali GPUs. Can anyone speak to the quality and build of these devices? AT&T Has a history of wanting Custom locked down builds of Android Roms on Phones they sell, loaded up with garbage. I'm sure the idea of selling some MediaTek relative with ADUPS is a non-starter for any
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The HiSicon Kirin SoCs are basically flagship level. They pretty much match the top Qualcomm SoCs in terms of CPU performance, but lose a bit in terms of GPU (who cares anyways?). As for Huawei Mate series, these are pretty much flagship level smartphones. The year old Mate 9 is a great phone even today, and the greatest thing is that it was not attached to any carrier (I avoid carried branded phones like a plague).
https://www.anandtech.com/show... [anandtech.com]
Intriguging (Score:3)
Dissect this as you wish. I could have given a better commentary but I've been drinking. It was rather striking and unusual though.
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Want to see something just as weird? Go to China and watch American commercials for Chinese stuff. They have American's with American accents. Some were obviously shot in America.
--
Doh' - H. Simpson
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yet they were acting like Americans.
Or maybe they're just acting like human beings, and your perception of how foreigners should act is being shattered.
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Earlier in the day I saw an a US ad for Huawei. It was the first time I've ever seen such a thing. It was also very strange. I am going to walk out on a limb and sound racist. Slashdot can make of it what it will. It was a very American ad in terms of dramatizing how super cool their tech is and the general way it was scripted and shot. It was also presented as a "here we come" kind of commercial. It was also very Asian as all the actors had were Chinese (or looked kinda like it) had heavy Asian accents, and was obviously shot in China, yet they were acting like Americans. It was about the Mate 10 being the end all be all. I think perhaps I saw it on YouTube which is strange as I only saw it the one time. I wish I had a link. Did anyone else see it? Dissect this as you wish. I could have given a better commentary but I've been drinking. It was rather striking and unusual though.
Foreign companies sometimes have to walk a fine line that can be difficult to follow. Many American chains in Japan have failed. Some didn't offer enough "Japanized" menu options (Wendy's). Others went in the other direction and failed because they catered 100% to Japanese tastes, and didn't offer any American menu items for customers who were seeking American-style food (Krispy Kreme).
Marketing and branding are also very important. The foreign company has to find some niche or market that domestic co
However little I trust Apple, AT&T, and NSA... (Score:1)
...I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
(Yes, I know a lot of lower-level chips used in phones are fabbed in China. I trust Apple more to detect embedded spyware than I do Chinese manufacturers not to put it there...)
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I agree. After all the software I've seen, I'd have to think that there was some piece of software that was reporting back to Huawei that they wouldn't or couldn't have gotten rid of.
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Ditto - Patrick Swayze
Re:However little I trust Apple, AT&T, and NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
However little I trust Apple, AT&T, and NSA......I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
I'd rather have the Chinese spying on me than my own government. The former's ability to fuck with your life is much more limited.
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People using a VPN the Communist party in China has not been given a backdoor to in China.
If the VPN works well all over China, some deal to report users is in place.
CIA, MI6 funded and supported protesters in China.
Wealthy people who have escaped China and who are now supporting protesters in China.
The creation of new network to try and support protesters in China.
To probe dual use mil/gov/comsumer telco networks that collect to on mil. air
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>I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
1) As a Canadian, I'm less likely to have trouble from the Chinese looking at my phone contents than the Americans (who share with Canada).
2) The phone I bought has been dissected by non-Chinese hackers who found nothing unusual or scary on it.
3) Unfortunately, countering point 1, it is an Android phone so in reality Google probably owns it. :(
4) I got a great (in my opinion) phone for a lot less than I'd
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
That was US and UK backed collect it all on networks and OS. The product line was the collection method.
Never again! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm on replacement Nexus 6P #2 due to fucking batteries that lose 60% of their capacity within a few months. Google & Huawei blame each other, I get stuck eating $79 deductibles each time to exchange it, and the replacement phone's battery is ultimately shit, too... new, but ultimately as flawed as the last.
It'll be a very, very long time before I buy another Huawei phone... if ever.
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+1
"delivering premium devices with integrity" - thousands of customers would disagree...
https://issuetracker.google.co... [google.com]
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To be honest, nearly every 2015 Android smartphone was garbage thanks to those Snapdragon 808/810 SoCs which were using those garbage A57 cores. Anandtech did a test that showed that most of 2015 phones throttled their "fast" A57 cores within seconds, and then switched to the efficient but slow A54 cores. You experience with Nexus 6P may have been bad, but I can guarantee that the experience of LG Nexus 5X users was a lot worse (draconian CPU throttling, poor multitasking, and destined to eventually bootloo
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thwarts (actively ignores) legitimate patents
One thing that can be confusing about China is that people over there tend to value pragmatism and do not see contracts as a thing that should shackle someone in a business partnership if it's no longer profitable. This may sound horrible to some westerners who see contracts (or patents) as set in stone, but that's just a cultural thing, it's not "evil". And it's not one-way either.
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then you don't understand evil and you don't understand cultural differences.
Re: AT&T did good? WTF? (Score:2)
you don't understand evil
So sayeth the cultural relativist.
There are several cultures known for lying casually; it varies from the passive-aggressive "polite" way Nihonjin do it to the fear-based way Okies do it (one of the few ways in which they tend to be rather Texans) to the practical way Somalis do it (you generally can't trust a word out of their mouths). Is it cultural? Sure. Is that an excuse?? Fuck, no... and fuck cultural relativity.
Re: AT&T did good? WTF? (Score:2)
Have to play to the stereotype (Score:3)
Damn, there's goes most of Slashdot's best chance to ever get a Mate.
US government pressure? (Score:2)
Could the US government have pressured AT&T to drop the deal with Huawei on spying concerns same as they did in regards to Huawei cellular networking backend gear?
had one - went dead just after warranty expired (Score:1)