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Interview: China will defeat US in mobile phone trade war, says University of Manchester academic

The United States are not realising the incredible “Chinese technological prowess” in the context of the US-China trade war and will ultimately be defeated by their Asian rivals, says a leading University of Manchester academic.

Huawei smartphone sales rose from 39.3 million in 2018 to £59.1 million in 2019, while iPhone sales shrunk from 52.2 million to between 36 and 43 million in the same period.

The divergence has been staggering, and academic economist Nick Weaver only sees this trend continuing.

“One thing I think they haven’t realised enough in the US is that Chinese technological prowess has massively increased,” he told MM.

“My suspicion is that in a way it will work to – I think – China will win on the trade war.

“I think the US view is that they perhaps want to maintain their world leadership role and in a way it’s already gone given the growth and production in smartphones in China.

“In China, everything is super-fast, super-quick in the big cities.

“The big cities are a list of 50 cities and they’re going to put cutting edge in technologies like this [smartphones].”

The US and China are locked in intense technological trade war and it has led to each country putting tariffs on the other countries’ goods, including smartphones.

The world’s two biggest economic superpowers produce the world’s leading modern day technology, but right now it appears that Beijing rather than Washington are developing the future cutting edge smartphone technology every smartphone user craves.

“On Huawei, I would have thought the fact they aren’t going to be allowed to use Google will mean they will develop their own operating systems and it will destroy Google’s dominance in this.

“Lots of people have been pushing the line that the fact that they [Huawei’s] won’t be allowed to use Google is going to damage them and that might damage them internationally for a while. But then then an alternative will come up so I think they’re backing against the Americans on this.”

The plan of technological development designed to oust Google is a ground breaking one, and when China come up with the solution they’re constantly working on everyday, they will inevitably be out in front against their western counterparts in the trade war.

“The specifications are higher, and it’s much better for price if you just look at the specifications and speed.

“The iPhone has always been overpriced, but it’s quite smooth and it’s got high status attached to it, but the processing power in the Chinese phones is better.

“And for the 5G stuff, they’ve got the leading technology so bits of the world which buy that [5G] are going to be ahead.”

Image courtesy of Fox Business via YouTube, with thanks.

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