Tomorrow, I will order the iPhone 15 for Ifeoma; she likes the iPhone and that is one small way I keep my game. Lol. But for me, my heart is on Huawei Mate 60 Pro which despite US sanction has accomplished a remarkable feat: “Huawei’s new flagship phone, the Mate 60 Pro, has become the world’s first phone model with a satellite calling feature (benchmarked on the size, weight and usability of ordinary terrestrial phones). Powered by China’s Tiantong-1 communications satellite system, this development is seen as a milestone in tapping into the full potential of China’s space technology for the mass consumer market.”
Giant tech company Apple, which is known to be a leader when it comes to innovations in the tech industry, recently rolled out its latest mobile device, the iPhone 15, which comes with unique features.
The Cupertino-based company took center stage three days ago, following the launch of its anticipated 17th-generation device, which was designed with grade-five titanium.
The iPhone 15 was launched with an updated USB-C charging port, a move that was spurred by the EU legislation, mandating connector standardization.
As I have posited here many times, when satellite phones become mundane like our typical terrestrial-domain phones, new vistas of opportunities will emerge. And Mate 60 Pro is opening that future, and that is indeed a new basis of competition in the battle of the future.
Simply, if sat phones can look and feel like your ordinary smartphones, that means adoption will move north. We have seen what Apple has, on Sept 25, we will see what Huawei offers at scale: “China’s Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL) said on Thursday it will hold a media event to discuss new products on Sept. 25, fanning expectations that details about recently released smartphones will be revealed. Its Mate 60 series is in the spotlight – both for the use of a China-made advanced chip and because the series likely marks the first major attempt by Huawei’s smartphone business to come back from crippling U.S. sanctions.”
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The biggest threat to terrestrial telecom firms remains the phones. If satellite phones advance in usage, satellite telcos can do to GSM operators what they did to CDMA companies in Africa. The future is loading….because where you live will not affect your signal quality!
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Comment 1: Prof., I believe this has to do with the Internet( Jeff Bezos’s “Project Kuiper” and Elon Musk’s Translink Satellite). That means once you have a satellite-enabled phone, no more restrictions based on location. The Telecoms too needs to be ready as another business playbook will soon unfold.
My Response: Prof., I believe this has to do with the Internet( Jeff Bezos’s “Project Kuiper” and Elon Musk’s Translink Satellite). That means once you have a satellite-enabled phone, no more restrictions based on location. The Telecoms too needs to be ready as another business playbook will soon unfold.
Comment 2: It comes with good investment in R&D Apple and Huawei lead in the investment in the future. Both did $25b investment in this in 2022. The grudge between the two runs deep and it’s driven by the US government onslaught on Huawei few years ago. Am sure the Chinese have something up their sleave on 25th that may make the premier phone company shudder
Comment 3: Ndubuisi Ekekwe Nice analysis as always Prof.The new race is now satellite phones which is aother level of competition between iPhone and Huawei as well as subtle threat to the US government and its telecoms industry.
My Response: China is indeed a huge competitor to the United States. And US companies understand that. No one expected Huawei to come back like this.
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First is to wait and see what Huawei Mate 60 has and can actually do, that would soon become clearer. As for satellite phones making a grand comeback at scale, well, we have to look beyond the economics and consider the politics that could slow down such a major comeback. Innovation still needs to bend to the prevailing political and social conditions, because there are entrenched interests that will soon come head to head. Fibre cable didn’t quickly replace copper wire, not because the latter was better but rather there’s billions of dollars of investment already done, you don’t quickly uproot all of that…
Huawei is big on innovation, it’s not just a smartphone maker, it also has a major say in the technology that connects the smartphones from regions to regions, so going satellite is also like replacing one arm of its business with another.
We see how it goes.
My take away……
“Every challenge, every adversity, contains within it the seeds of opportunity and growth.”
Thanks for sharing, Prof!
How much is the iphone i will lovd to by
The leader in innovation has never been Apple . This is a hype. There is nothing they do that has not been done before and they take ages to do that. Without the European union we could still be using lightning cables which is of no quality standard compared to type C yet they will preach innovation during events. Sorry USA please get to work rather than bullying others .
Nice one
Huawei’s strength cannot be underestimated. I really like Huawei’s in-screen unlocking. I am an iphone user but my friends use Huawei. Face recognition fails for me all the time. I will use TunesKit iPhone Unlocker to solve iphone unavailable. In-screen unlocking is a feature that Huawei has long had, but iPhones have never had it.