Huawei's Honor rejigs strategy, to soon launch ecosystem products in India

Known in the country for its smartphones, Honor is now seeking to bring its ecosystem products - smart televisions, speakers, tablets, wearables, glasses and laptops - to India.

Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei’s smartphone brand Honor has altered its product strategy in India. Known in the country for its smartphones, the company now seeks to bring its ecosystem products to India. These products include smart televisions, speakers, tablets, wearables, glasses, laptops, etc. Most of these, already available in China, will be made available in India starting next year.

“In India, we aim to create an entire product ecosystem that would include smartphones, televisions, tablets, laptops, watches, glasses, etc,” said Honor India President Charles Peng in an interaction with Business Standard.

According to Peng, the new product strategy is called “1+8+N” wherein “1” represents smartphones, “8” represents televisions, speakers, watches, laptops, fitness bands, glasses, etc, and “N” represents partner ecosystem products, including mobile offices, smart homes, sports and health, audio-visual entertainment, and smart travel products.

Smartphones, being at the core of the new product ecosystem, will remain the company’s focus area. By the end of this year, the company will bring to India its recently launched 48-megapixel camera based smartphone the Honor 9x, according to Peng.

Later, in the first quarter of 2020, the company will launch the Honor Vision smart television. This will be Honor's first smart product to run on its proprietary Harmony operating system. According to Peng, the company is in talks with content providers in India to support Honor Vision before it is launched in the country. However, the first batch of the television might be launched without any partnerships.

Peng also said that there was no defined launch timeline for these products, but the company was aiming to gradually bring to India most of its ecosystem products that were already available in its home country. As for India-exclusive devices, Peng confirmed there was no such plan but Honor would weigh its options based on consumer interest.

Business Standard