Huawei is working on a foldable phone which will debut next year and be the company’s first 5G-enabled handset, Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer division, told CNBC.

The company has not been afraid to jump into new consumer products including laptops and smart speakers. These new technologies could provide a growth engine for Huawei going forward.

Still, Huawei has pushed ahead with consumer products. Much of its success so far has been down to putting out smartphones with new technologies but at affordable price points.







It has been pushing the barrier with prices and also bringing in cutting-edge features. For example, the P20 Pro was launched earlier this year, boasting a triple-lens camera that retailed for just over $1,000.

Huawei also designs its own artificial intelligence chips which appear in its smartphones, much like Apple does.

For Yu, AI will be a key technology that will take smartphones to the next level and help the company grow in the future.

“AI is coming. AI will be the engine for all the future services. AI will be elementary to working on many devices, it will connect all the apps, you can get all the services from this AI capability. The biggest changes in the next 10 years will be AI-enabled phones capability,” Yu told.