Debswana’s Head of Information Management Molemisi Nelson Sechaba said that the Huawei-enabled smart mine solution has been deployed at Debswana’s Jwaneng open-pit diamond mine, and the project started operation in December 2021.

According to the Debswana head of Information Molemisi Nelson, the project started in December 2021 and Huawei’s 4G eLTE private network solution provides stable connectivity for the Jwaneng mine in Botswana.

It connects more than 260 pieces of equipment which includes drilling rigs, excavators, heavy trucks, and pickup trucks. This enables the interconnection between the mine’s production, safety and security systems.

Hon. Thulagano M. Segokgo, Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology of Botswana, stated that, the Government of Botswana is pleased to see Debswana and Huawei’s joint efforts aimed at driving digital transformation in the mining industry.

Xu Jun, Chief Technology Officer of Huawei Mine BU, said that Huawei is committed to using its strengths in ICT technologies like 5G, cloud, AI, and IoT to develop smart mine solutions that are based on an industrial Internet architecture for customers in the mining industry worldwide.

Liao Yong, Vice President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, said that mining is the economic backbone for many Sub-Saharan African countries and plays an important role in the economy of Africa as a whole.

Over the past five years, Huawei has provided services to mining enterprises in several countries including South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, and Ghana. Looking to the future, Huawei aims at working with more local partners to accelerate mining digital transformation and create more value in Africa.

According to Debswana, building on the success of the project in the Jwaneng mine deployed together with Huawei and Botswana local companies, the company plans to extend the smart mining solution in its Orapa, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane mines across the country in 2023.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

“The new HUAWEI MatePad Pro is the perfect tool that will inspire users to be more productive and creative. With the new HarmonyOS 2, users can take advantage of apps and services in completely new ways and work smarter than ever.”

said Kevin Ho, COO, Huawei Consumer BG

The HUAWEI MatePad Pro sports a 12.6-inch OLED FullView display with a 90% screen-to-body ratio –– the highest among all tablets currently available on the market. Each display ships a ΔE color difference of less than 0.5 for high color accuracy to deliver a crisp, and color-accurate picture. Also, an ultra-high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, and support for a DCI-P3 color gamut sum up as key features that headline the new MatePad pro’s display features.

Shipping Harmony OS as the first for a tablet, the MatePad pro equips a Kirin 9000 series chipset which enables incredible performance levels on the tablet due to the lightweight operating system. Due to the Kirin 9000 processor performance levels supported by the distributed data management and task scheduling capabilities of HarmonyOS, the tablet can work together with smartphones and PCs to extend productivity and creativity whether in an office or drawing board.

With multi-screen collaboration support, the tablet can be used as a drawing board in Mirror mode and a monitor in Extend mode. It also supports cross-device file dragging and dropping, delivering a more efficient and collaborative multi-device experience on a PC.

However, to facilitate the collaboration with PCs, the MatePad pro was unveiled together with the 2nd generation of the Huawei M-Pencil. The Smartpen features a platinum nib for high-precision handwriting and low latency differentiation between 4,086 levels of force as noted by Huawei during the launch event.

Ranking as the world’s first tablet to run harmony OS, the MatePad Pro ships a new user-first interface headlined by an IOS-like design, home screen widgets, a bottom navigation dock, among other features designed to bring out full performance on the Huawei new generation tablet.

To the camera department, the Huawei MatePad Pro ships a triple rear camera setup. While there’s no camera on the front for the MatePad pro 12.6, the 10.8-inch version on the other hand has a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera. Aside that, the 10.8-inch comes with a 7250 mAh battery that can recharge with 40W Huawei SuperCharge as the 12.6-inch version offers a bigger 10,000mAh capacity to deliver more uptime on the tablet.

At the moment, Huawei has not revealed the official MatePad pro price as yet, but based on the fact that Harmony OS powers the new generation tablet, it may be priced below $2000 to attract a new legion of users to the Harmony OS ecosystem. For now, Huawei is officially off the Android radar with the MatePad Pro sealing a new standard for future releases.

Over the years, the overall Tecno Mobile smartphones suite never exceeds $300 in all African counties where the brand is active, by this, many customers tend to opt for a cheap, yet high specifications release offered by the brand. More so, the unpredicted effects of the COVID19 Pandemic period in 2020 ignited a low-expenditure behaviour amongst customers makign midrange and entry-level smartphones the best choices to consider.

The brand managed to beat Samsung which has over the years been Africa’s top smartphone brand due to a 6.7% Year on Year (YoY) drop in smartphone shipments in 2020. Damage to smartphone shipments is attributed to the COVID19 pandemic which attracted lockdowns in countries like Uganda, Kenya, SouthAfrica, Nigeria, Rwanda, and many others.

The biggest drop in Smartphone shipments was in the first half of 2020 when COVID19 became a talk of the day. Then, manufacturers entered recovery mode in Q2, then restarted shipments in Q3 and Q4 when the African business atmosphere reflected with blue skies attracting a 1.5% YoY gain as opposed to the Q2 27% YoY drop in shipments.

According to Counterpoint Research’s senior Analysts Yang Wang, the change in market dynamics is greatly attributed to uncertainty caused by the COVID19 Pandemic which attracted a saving behaviour in customers as opposed to expenditure due to lockdown effects and preparations for the future.

“Looking at the entire year, the African smartphone market outperformed other regions but was not immune to disruptions caused by the pandemic. Q2 2020 was especially difficult as demand was hammered when most countries entered lockdowns. Smartphone shipments during the quarter saw a YoY drop of 27%.”

Said Yang Wang

On the other hand, mid-range smartphones sell like hot cake in Africa, and over the years, many customers have deviated away from purchasing top tier smartphones by opting for cheap quality. This has made the Transsion holdings trio of Tecno Mobile, Infinix, and Itel Mobile succeed in shipping smartphones at price tags users want to see, and not top tier quality that would hike prices.

As per the Counterpoint Research Market monitor, smartphones priced between $0-$199 were much popular and registered high shipments as opposed to top tier brands that often cost $300 and above. On average, midrange smartphones where Tecno Mobile ranks as a clear leader contributed to over 80% in smartphone shipments of 2020.

This means a change in user behaviour across the African continent, and top tier brands like Samsung have noted the change by introducing budget-friendly yet quality-centric smartphones to the midrange sphere. By standard, Samsung A Series releases rank as the best mid-range smartphones on the market as compared to Tecno Mobile releases.

By this standard, if Huawei Mobile re-opts to ship more midrange smartphones to the continent, then, the competition landscape will change giving manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Nokia, to re-imagine their prices and quality to best serve the midrange market. For now, Samsung is no longer Africa’s top smartphone brand – a position it has held for years. Instead, Tecno Mobile is now the leading smartphone brand with its sister brands of iTel and Infinix ranking 3rd and 6th respectively.

According to its 2020 data report, Huawei’s mobile suite growth is attributed to its fueled open source Harmony OS that has successfully engaged more than 20 hardware sellers and 280 application partners in the construction of a new open-source mobile ecosystem.

In 2020, the company confirmed that over 300 million devices will be using Harmony OS by late 2021. The operating system will be used on wearable devices, smartphones, smart home appliances, among others. On Mobile, the Huawei P50 is expected to be the first Smartphone to launch with a full Huawei Management Services (HMS) suite and Harmony OS ditching the Android trend that was affected by US sanctions on Huawei.

Under the Huawei Mobile Services suite, the Huawei App Gallery stands out as the official application store with several free and paid applications available for smartphone users. Unlike the Android Google Playstore, App Gallery can be used without a user necessarily logging in, instead, every Huawei smartphone comes pre-installed with the store to facilitate fast and secure downloads.

As a matter of fact, the growth of Huawei’s mobile suite can be attributed to its position as one of the world’s top 3 smartphone brands behind Samsung and shifting positions with Apple. And by late 2021 when more smartphones with Harmony OS are launched, the suite will eventually grow popular as a new breed of mobile devices will be available other than the usual Android and IOS legion.

The Huawei P50 is also expected to come in three models, a base Huawei P50, P50 Pro, and a P50 Pro+ similar to the P40 lineup revealed in 2020. Tentatively, all 3 models will differ in performance, storage, and battery standards to give a complete high mid-range texture for all potential users.

With a new rear camera setup, the Huawei P50 is as well expected to be a game-changer in the mobile photography game as a report confirmed that it will park the largest camera sensor with the detail-first image quality. In fact, the P50 camera is reportedly more powerful as compared to that on the Huawei P40 or Mate 40 series.

On top of that, the P50 is likely to come with a new rebuild of the Kirin 9000 chipset rumoured to be the Kirin 9000L with stripped performance. By standard, this will make the Huawei P50 a super fast smartphone since Harmony OS is expected to be lightweight, yet feature centric to allow the smooth flow of apps.

From previous announcements, Harmony OS will be installed on over 300milion devices by the end of 2021 and will support older Huawei Smartphones with EMUI 11 or above. And for now, the Huawei P50 is slated to be the very first Smartphone to ship with Harmony OS. Aside that, the rumoured latest camera technologies and setup changes make it an ideal flagship set to alter the overall perception of midrange Smartphones.

The Huawei Mate X2 comes with an 8-inch main foldable display with a 6.4 inch cover-folded OLED display. The display uses a shift of the industry-first magnetron nano-optical film, which further enhances display quality. Additionally, it produces a 1.5% low screen reflection as compared to its Mate X and Xs predecessors.

With a 2480 x 2200 pixels resolution, 413 PPI, 180Hz touch sampling rate, and a full-view experience on the main display. The cover side sports a 6.45-inch OLED display with a Full HD+ (2700 x 1160 pixels) resolution, 456 PPI, and 240Hz touch sampling rate that enables swift phone interactions in the folded position.

By Camera quality, the Huawei Mate X2 ships a new Leica camera design and quad setup consisting of a 50MP super sensing main camera, a 16MP ultra wide-angle, a 12MP telephoto camera, and an 8MP Periscope super zoom camera (with 10x optical zoom, f/4.4 aperture, optical image stabilization) to its back.

Additionally, the rear camera can record 4K (3840 × 2160) videos, and 1080p@960fps super slow-motion video with AIS anti-shake support. To the front, a 16MP ultra wide-angle camera is designed for selfies with newer modes, and video recording at 1080p (2512 × 1080).

While unfolded, the Mate X2 is 146.2mm x 161.3mm x 11mm, and 78.5 wide when folded. Also, the smartphone weighs 300g and packs a 4500mAh battery that supports 66W fast charging through a dedicated USB Type-C input port.

On the internals grade, the device equips a Kirin 9000 processor with an octa-core architecture consisting of 1 x Cortex -A77 at 3.13 GHz, 3 x Cortex-A77 at 2.54 GHz, 4 x Cortex-A55 at 2.05 GHz.The chipset also uses a 24-core mali G78 GPU for powerful graphics performance as listed on the Huawei Mate X2 Specifications sheet.

Huawei Mate X2 Specifications

Huawei Mate X2 Price

As per the Huawei Mate X2 Specifications sheet, the new foldable smartphone is one of a kind as compared to its predecessors like the Mate X and Xs. By price, the 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM variant costs $2,782 as the 8GB RAM + 512GB ROM costs $2,938 with availability of the device expected in the coming months by Q2 2021.

There are significant business opportunities in the mobile broadband space in building an ecosystem of affordable mobile devices to support user migration to 4G and 5G cellular network technology.

This was one of the key messages emerging from the 5^th Huawei Africa Mobile broadband salon that took place at the online Africacom Africa Tech Festival from 9th-12th November in Johannesburg, SouthAfrica.

At the festival, Delegates confirmed the fact that the ICT industry had never been more important to society, than how it is today. ICT is at the forefront of social development and restoring economies affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic period.

“Connectivity is the foundation for digital transformation, It’s about time that we address mobile connectivity not just in terms of speed or capacity or coverage, but also in terms of ecosystem accessibility, affordability, convenience, and value.”

said Salon facilitator Mohamed Madkour, Vice President, Carrier Business Marketing and Solutions for Huawei.

According to GSM, the number of 4G users in Africa is expected to triple in the next 5 years with an increase in the continent’s population from 55% today to 80% by 2025.

“Universal connectivity in Africa needs proactive collaboration from all stakeholders to develop profitable businesses and also encourage investment,”

said Madkour

Roy Zheng, an overseas business development director for one of the semiconductor makers, inked that since the pandemic, the demand for education tablets has exploded.

To meet this demand, his company produces chipsets that enable the production of tablets priced from as low as $48 for all audience affordability.

So, with manufacturers registering new lows for 4G enabled devices, the affordability rate will attract more users to rely on the network band as a default for communication. Hence, manufacturers are key players in making 4G availability as common as the 3G band across the continent.

 “We are able to provide chipsets for mobile phones priced from $31 which could be the ideal entry-level smartphones for 4G migration.”

Said Zheng

Also speaking at the Salon, Lin Ranhao, CEO of smartphone and tablet maker Tele 1, inked that during the coming years, the fastest growth rate of the 4G user base will most likely to come from Africa.

At the moment,  Africa has many 2G users awaiting a switch to 4G, but despite ready infrastructure by telecoms, the 4G penetration rate is still slow. Suggesting ways to resolve this, Ranhao drew an analogy with China, which encourages the production and purchase of electric vehicles through subsidies.

“If the conversion from 2G to 4G is such an urgent task for carriers, we should take a more proactive strategy, and drive this process through subsidies. After all, to bundle carrier plans with subsidized devices is common practice all over the world.”

In conclusion, Ranhao said that subsidy programs combined with competitively priced entry-level devices will lower the threshold for first-time smartphone buyers, accelerate 4G migration, and open vast business opportunities.

Henceforth, the increasing affordability of smartphones in Africa will soon become a key driver for wide 4G migration in Africa. Given the fact that telcos have laid out necessary infrastructure in countries where they operate, 4G remains a best to use network band promising the best transfer speeds before 5G is fully deployed on the continent.

According to a new report published by market analysis firm Canalys. Huawei has so far shipped 55.8 million smartphones in the 2nd quarter of 2020.

On the other hand, Samsung came second with 53.7 million Smartphone shipments, meaning Huawei takes a lion’s share on Smartphone shipments making it the largest manufacturer in the world.

In 2020, It was not the first time for Huawei to lift up its standards, in Quarter 1 it surpassed Apple to retain its 2nd Place which it had lost due to its unending sanctions from the US. But now, the Chinese giant is back to full throttle.

As a matter of fact, Huawei now sells over 70% of its Smartphones in mainland China given the lack of Google services that has attracted negative spikes in other markets.

However, the lack of Google Services serves as a merit in China, since most US Apps/services are banned in the region. So, it’s by no surprise that Huawei now registers more sales in China than elsewhere in the World.

Alternatively, the COVID19 Pnamdic has affected imports around the world, and China is the largest highly populated market in the World, Huawei’s share to the top slot became inevitable against Samsung.

As compared to previous trends, Huawei has witnessed a 5% year over year decline in sales as Samsung has faced a 30% fall in sales when compared with Q2 of 2019.

Well, With Huawei Mobile currently rocking as the gigantic Smartphone manufacturer in the World with its Smartphones missing Google services by default. This means the future is clear for the brand given the fact that customers still prefer its top-notch hardware, even without the fancy software.

Though Apple recently released the rumored iPhone 9 with an iPhone SE codename, Huawei’s continuous launches and custom Hong Meng operating system so far put it on top of its game to beat Apple even without Google’s support.

Huawei keeps its podium position with over 48.5 Smartphone shipments with a 17.6% market share inking a decline from its 2019 Q1 results. Last year, Huawei registered 59.1 million shipments with a 17.9% market share, meaning the brand’s growth has run short by 18% as compared to 2019.

According to strategic analytics__the publisher of the report__Huawei has managed to stick to its podium position irrespective of its current relations with the US, because its major sales muscle is China.

Current Market Share Statistics

Samsung remains the World’s leading Smartphone brand with a total of 58.3 shipments in the first quarter and a 21.2 Market share. Just like Huawei, Samsung has registered a 19% decline from last year where it registered over 71.8 shipments in Q1.

Apple on the other hand also has a short of 9% from last year’s growth with 39.2 in 2020 compared to 43.1 in Q1 2019. This means, the fate of the current Corona Virus pandemic has shrunk the market share of all 3 top brands worldwide.

So, with Huawei keeping its 2^nd position slot amidst its presence on the US’s entity list, It’s peak can be attributed to the custom HongMeng system, and continued Android compatibility since over 8 million 5G smartphones have so far been shipped by the brand.

Huawei Uganda has now donated more equipment including 2 sets of Video conferencing systems to facilitate the effectiveness and efficiency of communications and data sharing for the National task force and Government in general.

While receiving the donated equipment, the Prime Minister Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda inked that the digital facility will soothe meetings between statehouse and government arms to further emphasize the need for social distancing as a preventing measure against COVID19.

I am happy that we are given this powerful instrument to fight against Covid-19 and at the same time to efficiently and conveniently do our business

Hon Ruhakana Rugunda – Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda

According to Dr. Rugunda, the received equipment will be sent to State House, Entebbe and State House, Nakasero and applauded the Huawei for its contribution in interconnecting Uganda with a goal of promoting the popular Government standard e-Government.

Previously, Huawei Uganda contributed to the NITA-U led National Backbone Interface (NBI) project by connecting the West Nile region to the Internet through Phase IV of the project. On receiving the newly donated equipment, President Museveni Tweeted on the move as one to enable real-time & interactive communication between medical and Government staff.