One-Upsmanship? Huawei Will Debut ‘Epoch-Making’ Smartphones Hours After Apple’s

Will Apple’s big product rollout be overshadowed by one of its biggest competitors?

The iPhone maker is scheduled to announce its new slate of devices on Sept. 9, with China’s Huawei planning a similar event hours later, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Sept. 2).

According to the report, Huawei’s consumer group chief Richard Yu announced the event on social media platform Weibo, describing the company spending five years to create “an epoch-making product.” A source told Bloomberg Huawei plans to introduce the world’s first commercial-ready smartphone that folds twice, along with an Aito electric vehicle launch.

Bloomberg said that Yu has been spotted using the new device, known as a “trifold,” which offers the ability to fit an even larger, tablet-style screen within the dimensions of a standard smartphone. Other Chinese device makers like Honor Device and Xiaomi are also working on new iterations of the foldable phone.

The report noted that Huawei had dethroned Apple from the top five device makers during the June quarter, and argued that scheduling its event on the heels of Apple’s is a sign the company is ready to face off against the tech giant once more.

Apple’s event, meanwhile, will showcase devices like the iPhone 16. The rollout, happening at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, is dubbed “It’s Glowtime,” an apparent reference to the interface used by the digital assistant Siri on the Apple’s newest devices.

The iPhone 16 is due to go on sale Sept. 20. It will feature larger screens on the Pro models and new camera functions like a dedicated button for taking photos, though its most high-profile selling point is the inclusion of the new Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Last month, Apple released quarterly earnings showing quarterly hardware sales crept up to $61.6 billion, with management pointing out the potential for AI to help the company’s efforts to expand its ecosystem.

“It will transform how users interact with technology, from writing tools to help you express yourself to image playground — which gives you the ability to create fun images and communicate in new ways — to powerful tools to summarize and prioritizing notifications,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said.

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