Huawei’s Consumers May Face Setback due to AT&T Deal Breakdown

A deal between Huawei and AT&T to sell the Chinese company’s flagship phones through the carrier’s US stores has fallen through. Huawei’s Consumers May Face Setback due to AT&T Deal Breakdown.

AT&T walked away from a deal to sell the Huawei smartphone, Mate 10, to customers in the United States, however, Huawei has also confirmed that it will not sell its flagship Mate 10 Pro smartphone in the U.S. via AT&T, but it would still release “new products” in U.S.

Huawei’s Consumers May Face Setback due to AT&T Deal Breakdown

The reasons of AT&T’s shift were not so clear. But the plan was dismissed over political pressure from US lawmakers who saw Huawei as a security threat. The deal died after members of both the US Senate and House intelligence committees wrote to the FCC. The congress members were concerned that Huawei is working so closely with the Communist Party and intelligence services in China.

The reason behind the deal was to help Huawei gain a foothold in the US, while the agreement’s cancelation sets the company back a bit. Huawei was expecting that the AT&T partnership would open the ways to set it’s strong position in the U.S market.

The failure of the deal with AT&T could be a big loss for the world’s third-largest smartphone maker by market share.

Huawei’s Richard Yu said:

“Everybody knows that in the US market that over 90 percent of smartphones are sold by carrier channels. The canceled deal is a big loss for us, and also for carriers, but the more big loss is for consumers, because consumers don’t have the best choice.”

No doubt, the failure of deal is big loss for Huawei, but the company has plans to sell their flagship online in U.S. So If you are in America and want to get the Mate 10 Pro, you will be able to buy it online through Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers.

But the majority of consumers pick up devices from carriers in the US, so this can lead to less revenues for Huawei. The company was expecting to be the number one global smartphone manufacturer within the coming three years. It also claimed to beat Apple and Samsung by the end of this year, the chances of the Chinese manufacturer just went down.

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