Huawei’s ambitions to sell smartphones in the U.S. has received another major blow. After AT&T and Verizon backed out from selling its smartphones in the country due to political pressure, Best Buy has now also stopped ordering new smartphones from the Chinese smartphone giant. The U.S. retailer will stop selling Huawei smartphones over the next few weeks as well. Best Buy has not provided any official statement on this move and it is unclear why it has made this decision. However, given how AT&T and Verizon had to back out due to political pressure, its likely Best Buy is also backing out for similar reasons.
Our Take
Huawei has been desperately trying to get into the U.S. smartphone market. Despite being the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, the company has almost no presence in one of the world’s largest smartphone market. At CES 2018, Huawei’s CEO was going to announce a partnership with AT&T, with the latter then carrying their smartphones in their stores and network. However, AT&T backed out at the very last minute leaving Huawei’s CEO fuming with anger. A few days later, Verizon also followed suit and cut all ties with the Chinese smartphone maker. Huawei has been struggling to get into the U.S. market due to security concerns. Huawei’s close ties with the Chinese government makes the White House intelligence arm uncomfortable, with various reports from them posing Huawei as a national security threat.
