It looks like another dark day for Huawei's laptops, as new reports claim the company's dialing down production on its MateBook line.
This week's bad news first surfaced in DigiTimes, which reported that Huawei has been asking "notebook supply chain partners to suspend deliveries, and has also halted all its new notebook projects." That would suggest that the only MateBooks we'll be seeing going forward are those that have already been produced, or whose parts have already been delivered.
Notebookcheck verified this report with a story that cites "industry insiders" it spoke to during the recent Computex trade show, with both manufacturers and suppliers seeing a near future without Huawei in the laptop market. The report also says that "Huawei had canceled an order for 16-inch laptop panels, and this could be taken as a sign that the manufacturer is slowly ceasing operations."
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This news comes in the aftermath of Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom all cutting ties with Huawei due to U.S. sanctions imposed against the Chinese tech giant. Losing those partners could kill the company's ability to produce laptops going forward. Huawei notebooks were then taken out of the Microsoft Store. A Bloomberg report noted that the company had hoarded parts to survive a three-month gap in deliveries, which means the clock is certainly ticking.
Huawei's troubles began when they were black-listed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as the target of an executive order from President Donald Trump, who blocked American companies from using telecom equipment supplied by any company that the United States sees as a threat to national security. The U.S. has yet to prove its case against Huawei, though.
While Huawei announced 2019 MateBooks back in February, it has yet to announce U.S. pricing or availability.
