The new Honor wants to compete with Apple and Samsung, what new products can we expect and more: interview with Pablo Wang (VP Honor Europe)

The last time we interviewed Pablo Wang, the situation and the context were very different. At that time, summer 2019, Pablo was Huawei’s Consumer Director in Spain and the United States had just included Huawei in the now famous “entity list” and prevented them from having access to North American software and hardware. It was possibly one of the most difficult moments of Pablo’s career. But a lot has happened since then and, although Huawei is still “banned” and there have been few changes on that side, Pablo is now at the forefront of another project that seems to be living a second youth.

I speak, of course, of Honor. The former sub-brand of Huawei began its solo “flight” a little over a year ago after becoming independent and being bought by a group of Shenzhen distributors. Pablo Wang, a faithful connoisseur of the Spanish mobile market, is now Vice President of Honor in Europe and one of the major international leaders in trying to take this “new” brand, in quotes, to the top of the market manufacturers.

On the occasion of the presentation of the Honor 50, a few weeks ago we were able to sit down to talk with Pablo Wang about the present and future of the Honor brand, its devices and also what we can expect from this relaunch of a brand that is already somewhat known but that comes with a very important challenge: make the leap to the general public.

The new Honor

When Honor was born as a Huawei brand, it did so with a very marked audience in mind: young people who bought online. Their phones did not have the most innovative design on the market (for that you had to go to Huawei), but they did take the technical innovations that were released by Huawei’s flagship models and launched them on the market a few months later at a more contained price. All this with a lot of color, of course.

The strategy has now changed: “Now with the new Honor we try to reach the entire segment or consumer profile, from high-end with the flagship, which carry the maximum technology, up to an entry-level one, to try to reach all kinds of audiences, “as Pablo explains. Honor is no longer a sub-brand and has become a “brand” with all of the law, which also comes to compete with the big companies in the sector.

In fact, this change in the brand’s approach is also clear when we ask who its competition is today. George Zhao, CEO of Honor, already told us last summer that Apple and Samsung were clear competitors. Pablo shares his opinion: “Yes, if we have to reach the high end, at flagshipNowadays the references with which we have to compete are Apple and Samsung “.

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“For the high-end, nowadays the references with which we have to compete are Apple and Samsung”, Pablo Wang (Honor)

Beyond going all out in the super high range, and seeing that the idea is cover all ranges and reach all audiencesWe asked Pablo what plans they have for their catalog. Will they release a lot of products each year? How many phones can we expect? “We are starting,” he says, almost asking us for patience with his voice. “This is like any new brand in which the product is arriving one by one, but, as I said, if we have to reach all the ranges they have to be a lot of telephones”.

Honor 50 5G, analysis: Honor's return to Europe with 5G and the new design lines by flag

He talks about the Honor 50, its upper mid-range, and the Honor 50 Lite, its mid-range. In the summer of 2021 in China they launched the Magic 3, their “flagship”, but we will not see it in Europe. The reason? The next flagship is just around the corner (MWC?) and they are going to enter the market directly with the new model. And finally there will be the X series, mid-range and low-end, which we will see in 2022. “Little by little we are going to incorporate everything in 2022,” says Pablo. These ranges will also be joined by the new Honor Magic V (according to leaks), the company’s first folding and which we will know on January 10.

The Honor Magic 3 will not be launched in Europe: its successor, this year’s great Honor flagship, will soon arrive here

Can it even be seen as a way to fill the gap in phones left by Huawei? Pablo doesn’t see it that way: “No, the market is always there. One brand can come, it leaves, another comes. As a new brand, like any new brand, we try to start working in the market with our product, quality and we try to compete and get into the market. “

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Although the first part of our conversation is mainly monopolized by mobile phones, I also ask Pablo what his strategy will be with other types of products. Is Honor a company that will focus 100% on phones or will we see an approach to an “ecosystem company” similar to what Huawei did in its day with its famous 1 + 8 + N? Pablo assures us that “we are going to focus a lot on the strategy of a connected ecosystem”.

For them, “the smartphone is always one [de los dispositivos] more important “, but they already have headphones and laptops. They will launch wearables and confirm that this year they have plans to launch tablets in the European market. “Little by little we are going to complement the portfolio,” he explains. I ask him if they have any launch plans in mind in a category that surprises us beyond the usual ones, like, I don’t know, microwaves. “Not that I know of,” says Pablo with a laugh.

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Not only mobiles: laptops, headphones and soon more wearables and tablets

Finally, I ask you a question that today could be asked of any electronics manufacturer: is the shortage of components affecting them? No, he explains, partly thanks to his strategy of relying on several international partners: “from the beginning we want to be an international company, we try to put together very international supply systems.” Even in China, where he says they have reached 16.2% market share and there is a great demand, he assured during the time of our interview that they were not having supply problems.

Honor returns to Europe and goes for the high range: "we want to compete with Apple and Samsung" (George Zhao, CEO of Honor)

Honor’s new life without Huawei

In 2020, Huawei sold Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. “There are more or less thirty investors, which are the thirty most important wholesale partners in the Chinese sector,” Pablo explains.

Honor already had 10,000 employees around the world a few weeks ago. At the rate they are growing, it would not be surprising if that number has grown considerably since then. And we are talking about a company that, yes, was a sub-brand of another large multinational, but that also depended in many parts on that “older sister.” To give you an example, when in 2017 I interviewed the then President of Honor in Europe, she taught me an image where it was seen that departments such as R&D, Production and Customer Service were common to Huawei and Honor, while others such as design or marketing were independent of each company. Honor relied heavily on Huawei.

How have they done after the independence and purchase of Honor? “This is a totally new, independent company that we have all our logistics, our R&D, everything, everything independent,” says Pablo, who also ensures that more than 50% of those 10,000 employees that we mentioned are dedicated to R&D. “Everything is ours. It is already a totally new and independent company that has nothing to do with Huawei,” he insists.

“Honor is already a totally new and independent company that has nothing to do with Huawei”, Pablo Wang (Honor)

More specifically, I ask you how that change from Huawei to Honor has been. Are there people who worked, for example, in Huawei logistics and now all those people have gone to work in Honor logistics? How do you create a company from nothing and, suddenly, have 10,000 employees one year later? “It is not from one day to the next”, points out Pablo, who also assures that “little by little they are being incorporated [trabajadores] not only from Huawei but from the entire market, the entire sector. “

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Would Honor Survive a Blockade by the United States?

During our conversation it is impossible not to mention the issue of the US veto on some Chinese companies. What if tomorrow Biden decided to put Honor on the list of blocked companies? Some American politicians they asked in October so be it, although so far there has been no news in that regard.

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Is Pablo Wang afraid that the United States will include Honor in the Entity List? “I think it doesn’t make any sense. The company from the beginning has positioned itself as a very international, very open company that works with all partners in all markets that we can reach little by little. This is almost a question. for them. We do our work, the product reaches the market and is sold, period. “

“It doesn’t make any sense” for the United States to go to Honor, according to Pablo Wang.

When asked if there is a plan B in case this happens, Pablo is resounding: “We have not thought about that.” I also ask you if you think that Google Mobile Services are essential today to compete in the world of mobile technology (remember that with the blockade Huawei was left without them, in addition to being unable to opt for other components). Pablo thinks that this “has to be answered by consumers, everyone has their need for the smartphone”, but insists that “we do have them, so people can use them.”

Honor not only returns to the market with Google services, remember, but it also does so with agreements with important partners such as Qualcomm, which facilitates the processors. At the moment Pablo discards with a resounding “no, I have no news” that Honor is going to manufacture its own processors, as Huawei did with its Kirin and as other manufacturers, such as Oppo, are beginning to do.

“We do have Google Mobile Services”, Pablo Wang (Honor)

In fact, we asked Pablo about another possibility: what would happen if tomorrow the United States lifted the veto on Huawei? “It does not have much to do with us because Huawei is Huawei and Honor is Honor,” he answers convinced. Would it be one more competitor then? “A competitor, even tougher than the others”, sentence.

Looking at the future

Pablo Presentation 2

Pablo is surprised by my last question. I propose the following: Yes five years from now In Engadget we published a news story of Honor, what would be the news, the content and the headline? To such an extent it is striking that the next day he uses the question in his presentation to the media. The answer? Pablo has it clear: “What can give me more satisfaction is that, after five years on this date, you publish that Honor is going to launch its flagship next month. So year after year we work and improve. “

Reference-www.xataka.com