Huawei banks on the rise of the selfie for world's thinnest smartphone
Smartphone's 'instant facial beauty support' capitalises on growing trend for 'selfies' and will retail below price for latest Apple iPhone
Juliette Garside
The Guardian, Wednesday 19 June 2013
Huawei Ascend P6 smartphone launches in London, June 2013. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
The world's thinnest smartphone, with a touch screen so sensitive it responds to gloved hands, has been unveiled by rising Chinese manufacturer Huawei in the latest challenge to the iPhone.
The Ascend P6 is just over 6mm thick, comes in white, black and baby pink, and in language usually associated with skin creams rather than computer technology, its maker claims the camera's "instant facial beauty support" software reduces wrinkles and blends skin tone.
The phone capitalises on the growing popularity of the self portrait or "selfie", examples of which now litter the internet, with celebrities from Justin Bieber to Rihanna as likely to photograph themselves as their friends and family.
While smartphone front facing cameras – those on the same side as the screen - have tended to be low resolution, the Ascend P6 has 5 megapixels, compared to 1.2 for the iPhone 5. Its rear camera has 8 megapixels, equivalent to Apple's phone.
On sale from July, and with a recommended price of €449 (£385), or £21 a month with a contract, it is cheaper than the latest iPhone, which costs £529 in the UK. The P6 is made with metal and glass and less plastic than previous Huawei models, but the current version lacks the iPhone's ability to run on 4G networks.
"The keen price is evidence that Huawei is prepared to use pricing as a way of building share in major European markets," said analyst Ben Wood at CCS Insight. "Huawei has made substantial progress in design and quality, but the big unanswered question is whether consumers will accept a product from an almost unknown name in preference to established brands."
With Apple and Samsung taking the lion's share of profits to be made from smartphones, operators and retailers are keen to redress the balance of power away from the duopoly. Huawei's launch event in Camden's Roundhouse was attended by Carphone Warehouse chairman Sir Charles Dunstone, who took to the stage to describe Huawei as "the most fantastic partner".
Its phones are popular in China, but despite setting the ambitious goal of selling 60m smart handsets in 2012, Huawei managed a less dazzling 32m and failed to rank among the top five vendors, according to research firm IDC.
The company has been most successful as a maker of mobile and broadband network equipment., overtaking European and American rivals to become the second largest vendor after Sweden's Ericsson.
Its presence throughout BT's copper and fibre lines, and in the 4G equipment being installed by the UK's largest mobile phone company, Everything Everywhere, has raised security concerns in the UK.
This month, a parliamentary committee rebuked ministers for failing to monitor the use of Huawei's equipment in UK networks.
Blocked from buying companies in the United States, where politicians have discouraged telecoms companies from buying its equipment, Huawei is hoping to the P6 will enhance its own image in Western markets.
