When Huawei faced sanctions from the U.S. government in December, due to security concerns, it decided to spinoff its smartphone brand Honor as an independent company. CNBC recently reported that Honor will be launched in 40 markets overseas and it has access to both Google apps and Qualcomm chips.

Huawei considered Honor to be its budget phone brand. It was sold to a group of buyers including the government in Shenzhen, which is its home base. Huawei faced U.S. sanctions in 2019 and 2020. So, it made the brand independent, to recoup some of its sales losses.

The new smartphone Honor 50 has been priced at €529 which is equivalent to roughly $614. Currently Honor does not face any sanctions from the U.S. government. It was launched in China, earlier in 2021. Its latest model, the Honor 50 has the following features:

Google apps and Android operating system
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G chip
4 camera setup on the back of the phone
Display screen of 6.57 inches.

Counterpoint research said that the Honor brand has got back some of its market share in China. As per its report, Honor had gained a 15 percent market share in China and is now the third largest smartphone brand in the country. In global markets, it saw a rise to 3.7 percent. Its market share in February was 1.5 percent. The main factor for its gain in global markets is robust sales n China.

It remains to be seen if Honor can gain a larger share in international markets, after it will be launched overseas. Other Chinese smartphone makers including Xiaomi had taken over the spot vacated by Huawei and Honor when the company was facing U.S. sanctions.

The spinoff was made to save Huawei’s smartphone business. Although Honor is now an independent brand, by gaining independence it has lost the huge marketing reach that its erstwhile parent Huawei had given it in the past. This reach helped it to gain a large market share in the past, before the U.S. sanctions.