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AT&T Pulls Out of Deal To Sell China's Huawei Phones In the US (phonedog.com)
According to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T has walked away from a deal to sell China's Huawei smartphones in the U.S. Neither AT&T nor Huawei have commented on the matter, but the news is certainly going to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to picking up Huawei's flagship Mate 10. Prior to this report, Huawei was expected to announce that its flagship Mate 10 will launch on AT&T in 2018. PhoneDog reports: Huawei has a major presence internationally, with recent reports saying that it's the No. 3 smartphone brand in the world behind Apple and Samsung. The company hasn't made much of a dent in the U.S., though, despite the fact that it's been selling its phones unlocked in the U.S. for awhile now. This AT&T deal would've been big for Huawei, helping it to get its phones inside carrier stores and in front of U.S. consumers, the majority of which still buy their phones from their carriers. Now we'll have to wait and see if Huawei can strike a deal with another carrier or if it'll have to continue on in the unlocked market. A Huawei spokesperson only said "Huawei has proven itself by delivering premium devices with integrity globally and in the U.S. market."
I'm going to say that there were probably some "just because" terms in the agreement that made it too onerous or unprofitable for ATT to sign off on the deal. Folks accustomed to doing business with some of these Chinese firms that are private (but everyone knows there is a huge government interest) will recognize this for what it is. They wanted very rich terms and aren't accustomed to being told NO.
Why on Earth do I need AT&T to sell me a Huawei phone?
What is so hard about buying an unlocked phone? What is it about buying from a carrier that is preferable - in my experience it's horrible. They are slow and will give you a locked phone when you've paid for an unlocked phone, which you then spend countless hours getting them to fix.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Another win for consumer choice! Thanks capitalism!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I can't immediately tell, but these Phones seem to have some variant that looks really similar to the MediaTek chips that BLU sells, only they seem to be called the Kirin. (Its like they made extremely high Quality MediaTek CPUs and Mali GPUs. Can anyone speak to the quality and build of these devices? AT&T Has a history of wanting Custom locked down builds of Android Roms on Phones they sell, loaded up with garbage. I'm sure the idea of selling some MediaTek relative with ADUPS is a non-starter for any US Carrier.
Earlier in the day I saw an a US ad for Huawei. It was the first time I've ever seen such a thing. It was also very strange. I am going to walk out on a limb and sound racist. Slashdot can make of it what it will. It was a very American ad in terms of dramatizing how super cool their tech is and the general way it was scripted and shot. It was also presented as a "here we come" kind of commercial. It was also very Asian as all the actors had were Chinese (or looked kinda like it) had heavy Asian accents, and was obviously shot in China, yet they were acting like Americans. It was about the Mate 10 being the end all be all. I think perhaps I saw it on YouTube which is strange as I only saw it the one time. I wish I had a link. Did anyone else see it?
Dissect this as you wish. I could have given a better commentary but I've been drinking. It was rather striking and unusual though.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
...I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
(Yes, I know a lot of lower-level chips used in phones are fabbed in China. I trust Apple more to detect embedded spyware than I do Chinese manufacturers not to put it there...)
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
There is plenty of other Chinese junk on the market if you want something that's going to be buggy af.
I'm on replacement Nexus 6P #2 due to fucking batteries that lose 60% of their capacity within a few months. Google & Huawei blame each other, I get stuck eating $79 deductibles each time to exchange it, and the replacement phone's battery is ultimately shit, too... new, but ultimately as flawed as the last.
It'll be a very, very long time before I buy another Huawei phone... if ever.
The Deathstar Co has been on my "Do not do business with" list for a long time (90's?). This is the first time I've seen them do something right. China is pure evil. There are some really cool people there, making some really inexpensive electronics -- Anker, LED Lights (too many manufacturers to list), etc. -- however, I would not trust any "smart" device that comes from a county that supports N. Korea, thwarts (actively ignores) legitimate patents and generally supports Communist Dictatorships.
Just my $0.02. YMMV, IANAL, YCFOIYANO (That last one might be new... You can fuck off if you are now offended)
I agree. After all the software I've seen, I'd have to think that there was some piece of software that was reporting back to Huawei that they wouldn't or couldn't have gotten rid of.
--
Ditto - Patrick Swayze
You have no idea what you are talking about. You flat out made that up. Chinese firms make it very easy to go into business together. Very easy. Very very easy. Their negotiations go like this: "Yes. Yes. We can do that. Yes. Yes. Yes."
That's why China has done so well in attracting business and outperforming India and Africa who can offer cheaper labor. Chinese companies keep as much distance from the ruling communist party as they legally can. Most of them are in southern china far from the seat of power. You think they've going to invite communists into their factories for advice on running the place? Fuck no. Read "Poorly made in China". You are welcome you brainwashed imperialist capitalist pig. :-)
However little I trust Apple, AT&T, and NSA......I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
I'd rather have the Chinese spying on me than my own government. The former's ability to fuck with your life is much more limited.
>I trust the Chinese government even less, and will avoid entrusting my data to a Chinese-made phone.
1) As a Canadian, I'm less likely to have trouble from the Chinese looking at my phone contents than the Americans (who share with Canada).
2) The phone I bought has been dissected by non-Chinese hackers who found nothing unusual or scary on it.
3) Unfortunately, countering point 1, it is an Android phone so in reality Google probably owns it. :(
4) I got a great (in my opinion) phone for a lot less than I'd pay if I'd bought a similarly-featured domestically available phone.
thwarts (actively ignores) legitimate patents
One thing that can be confusing about China is that people over there tend to value pragmatism and do not see contracts as a thing that should shackle someone in a business partnership if it's no longer profitable. This may sound horrible to some westerners who see contracts (or patents) as set in stone, but that's just a cultural thing, it's not "evil". And it's not one-way either.
lucm, indeed.
Instead of choices between phones that run spyware android OS, and phones that run spyware androidOS+backdoor China firmware/hardware, and phones with call-home Siri.
Then again, why would anyone want to carry with them an always-on GPS device.
How did that "trust" the consumer had work out over the years and years of PRISM?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
That was US and UK backed collect it all on networks and OS. The product line was the collection method.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
China has a few limited areas of direct internet interest.
People using a VPN the Communist party in China has not been given a backdoor to in China.
If the VPN works well all over China, some deal to report users is in place.
CIA, MI6 funded and supported protesters in China.
Wealthy people who have escaped China and who are now supporting protesters in China.
The creation of new network to try and support protesters in China.
To probe dual use mil/gov/comsumer telco networks that collect to on mil. air force, navy, army, special forces bases globally.
Was a nation foolish and trusted another nations consumer telco products expect them to probe your secret mil infrastructure thats on the wide open "internet".
Connect your most sensitive sites to the open "web" and other nations will take a look.
The rest of the spying is done by humans loyal to the Communist party all over the world in academia, business, civil society. No internet is risked as the FBI, MI5, GCHA, NSA can discover entire spy networks who chat too much on the "net"
vs. the NSA and GCHQ 5 hops of global collect it all efforts.
The West collects it all online. Other nations use their own trusted humans to spy globally for generations. The West has Prism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
China has human spies. From the average US consumer, the junk NSA encryption sold in tame US OS, hardware, software is a real problem.
That has reduced the protection of working encryption and replaced it with backdoors, trapdoors, no encryption.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Uhm the one i have heard about being "groundbreaking " is Xiaomi
Removable battery (still not replaced) had it since 2009 or 2010, and it is still in use 7-8 years later, despite constant dropping, spilling alcohol on it (which dissolved some of the capacitive gel under the protective cover) and regular use that entire time.
It's been upgraded once unofficially to Android 4, but otherwise has had no modding, gets used strictly as a phone, and only has f-droid supplied apps installed on it.
Not necessarily secure, but the operating system itself doesn't appear to be leaking anything so the only backdoors are in the baseband firmware, or clicking links/installing software that could backdoor it. But thanks to firewalling even that is pretty unlikely.
As far as blaming the batteries: That is mostly the attempts to make them less than a 1/4" thick, 1/4-1/2" thick batteries tend to be pretty reliable unless you drop, puncture, or overheat them, but anything thinner just doesn't have the room for a proper shell around it to protect the cells.
Damn, there's goes most of Slashdot's best chance to ever get a Mate.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Could the US government have pressured AT&T to drop the deal with Huawei on spying concerns same as they did in regards to Huawei cellular networking backend gear?
The notion that you would dishonor a contract (relationship) whenever it was convenient seems pretty evil to me and a moral failing that transcends culture.
Avast inside the "Optimiser" apps came preinstalled with most Chinese phones. The default keyboard constantly connecting to the some servers. Doesn't sound very good does it? Well those are just some of the oddities I observed in our home network with the few Chinese phones we have. On top of that is the usual Android crap
then you don't understand evil and you don't understand cultural differences.
lucm, indeed.
The Communist Party requires a representative in every company with more than 50 employees. https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-china-cant-innovate
This. If we have this or any other brand of phone for sale where the NSA doesn't have direct control over the manufacturer, well, that's just a bad thing for too many people who are into illegal spying. I'm sure somebody had words with AT&T about that.
you don't understand evil
So sayeth the cultural relativist.
There are several cultures known for lying casually; it varies from the passive-aggressive "polite" way Nihonjin do it to the fear-based way Okies do it (one of the few ways in which they tend to be rather Texans) to the practical way Somalis do it (you generally can't trust a word out of their mouths). Is it cultural? Sure. Is that an excuse?? Fuck, no... and fuck cultural relativity.
That should have read "...unlike Texans."
Two words: "quality fade."
When it is in their favor, they will honor a contract. When not... well... they don't. Simple as that.
Americans may be asses, but they honor their part of the deal, even when the Chinese use their IP for "third shift" products.
In Texas, being called a liar used to be fighting words. Now, with how morals have changed, the person that swallowed someone's BS is considered the dumb one, not the one whose morals are lacking.
This only will come back to haunt us. You may see fear based lying from Okies, but there is a reason why people from other areas just avoid them, and already, we are seeing this with Americans in general.
Maybe there might be a a tipping point, where someone's word may mean something again. Who knows.
As in the subject. It is true that the sample is too small to be valid, however it has never happened before with any phone I owned. Usually they far outlive they usefulness. In case of this brand however, just about a month or two after its warranty expired the phone went dead, no warnings, no errors, did not fall, was taken good care of, yet still just gone, and it was a top of the line Nexus 6P. The previous one Samsung S4 (no affiliation with the company whatsoever) fell on the concrete, corner first, screen cover cracked (just in the corner, which hit the ground) - still working.
So, no thank you.
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/a-while-vs-awhile/