Huawei doesn’t allow any other manufacturer to use its Kirin chips on any smartphone without the Huawei brand. The Kirin 980, which debuted at this year’s IFA, is Huawei’s best-performing chip at this stage. Well, we know that Kirin 980 is more than a capable SoC. But, then why Huawei doesn’t sell Kirin to the other brands?
To explain, Body Ji, Senior Product Director of Huawei said, Kirin is not a business, it is a technology that serves as a competitive advantage for Huawei, against the competition. Well, we agree with Huawei’s idea of keeping the Kirin Chipsets an intellectual property. This gives Huawei a small edge over other competitors.
Further, if you were unaware, Huawei specializes in manufacturing the Kirin SoC under HiSilicon, that exists since 2004. Today, almost 70% of Huawei Flagships and mid-rangers use in-house Kirin chipsets. Besides, the entry-level Huawei smartphones rely on Qualcomm’s 400-series.