Honor partners Microsoft for OS

Honor, the Chinese gadget brand that gained full independence from Huawei, has signed a global cooperation agreement with US tech giant Microsoft Corp, under which it will use Microsoft Windows 10 as the official operating system in its laptops.

The move is likely to pave the way for more partnerships in the near future such as the one anticipated with US chip giant Qualcomm Inc, to better solve Honor's supply chain issues. This showcases foreign companies' welcoming attitude toward the new company, experts said.

The new generation of Honor MagicBook series of laptop products equipped with Microsoft Windows 10 will be launched in China in January 2021. The Honor notebook MagicBook Pro equipped with Microsoft Windows 10 and Intel Core i5 processors will debut in overseas markets in January, Honor said in a statement.

Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said: "Honor is pleased to reach a global cooperation agreement with Microsoft. Through mainstream operating systems and technologies, we will bring consumers PC products with outstanding design, powerful performance and first-class experience. Honor insists on taking consumers as the core and maintaining a fully open attitude and will work together with global industrial chain partners."

Huawei sold Honor in November to a Chinese consortium of over 30 agents and dealers to ensure the brand's survival. The decision came as Huawei was facing severe pressure, due to the persistent unavailability of technical components needed for its mobile phone business.

Since its creation in 2013, the Honor brand has focused on the youth market by offering phones in the low-end to midrange price bands. During the past seven years, Honor has developed into a smartphone brand that ships over 70 million handsets every year.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said the partnership with Microsoft showcases the US company's recognition of the new Honor company.

"With one US company partnering with Honor, more US companies are likely to be on board in the near future, which can better solve Honor's supply chain issues," Xiang said.

US chip giant Qualcomm said earlier this month that it was holding discussions with Honor when asked about whether it can ship chips to the latter.

Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon said earlier that he likes the vitality of the Chinese mobile phone market and hopes that Honor can launch more good products.