Huawei coincides double foldy phone launch with Apple iPhone event

The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design takes the foldy phone concept to the next level by adding another fold. It’s being widely described as ‘tri-fold’ but, while there are three screens, they’re joined by just two folds. Pedantry aside, this seems to be the first such device ever seen in the wild and, as such, represents a minor technological victory for Huawei and, by extension, China.

We don’t know much about it yet but Huawei has already made the phone available for pre-order. The listing doesn’t have any specs other than a couple of colours and the option to go up to 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, which seems a lot for a phone. But then, if there is a point to such a device apart from status signalling, it must be to consume video, which takes up a lot of storage space.

All the signs are that the Mate XT will, initially at least, be available only in China. We don’t yet know the price, which will be considerable, but may only have to wait a day to find out because Huawei has scheduled a launch event for 14:30 tomorrow, which is 07:30 UK time. Coincidentally Apple has its own event, at which it’s expected to unveil the latest iteration of the iPhone, that is scheduled for 10:00 PT today, which is 18:00 UK time. So the two events are just half a day apart.

Principle US interest in the Huawei event will come from a desire to learn what kind of SoC Huawei has managed to get hold of for this new top-end phone. A year ago it managed to get American politicians and spooks all bent out of shape with the launch of a phone assumed to contain a chip US export controls were supposed to have denied Huawei access to. As a result, a bunch of new restrictions were imposed, so we may be about to find out if they worked any better.

Huawei has long been prevented from working with leading chipmakers TSMC and Samsung, but China has been pulling out all the stops to help its domestic chip scene catch up with its neighbours. By far the most effective method the US has to obstruct that endeavour is to deny Chinese chip companies such as SMIC access to ultraviolet lithography tools made by Dutch firm ASML, which has cornered the market in the most advanced ones.

To date, America has had to expend significant diplomatic capital to get ASML to play ball, but the Dutch government has now spontaneously decided to take the lead on this matter itself. Furthermore, it is expanding the restrictions beyond EUV – the most advanced tech – to now include DUV – the previous generation.

“I’ve made this decision for reasons of security,” insisted Durch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Reinette Klever. “We see that technological advances have given rise to increased security risks associated with the export of this specific manufacturing equipment, especially in the current geopolitical context.

“The Netherlands has a unique, leading position in this area. This entails certain responsibilities, which we take seriously. The Dutch semiconductor industry needs to know what it can expect. We have proceeded in a careful and targeted manner, so as to minimise the disruption to global trade flows and value chains.”

To be clear ‘the current geopolitical context’ concerns the US trying to put the Chinese technological genie back in the bottle in order to perpetuate its status as global hegemon. Klever has reportedly insisted US pressure played no part in her decision but that’s hard to believe. China certainly thinks so, something it made clear in a characteristically surly public statement on the matter.

Apple is unlikely to announce anything special on the hardware front later today and will instead probably lean heavily on the already tired AI angle. The contrasting buzz around an innovative Chinese phone launch, however showy and gratuitous that innovation may be, is bound to further aggrieve those who resent and feel threatened by China’s progress.