* More consumers looking to trade in Huawei phones in
Singapore
* People looking to offload latest phones -Mobile Square
salesman
* Retailers in Philippines also stay away from Huawei
* KDDI, SoftBank's Ymobile delay launch of Huawei P30 Lite
(Adds Huawei comments)
By Fathin Ungku and Neil Jerome Morales
SINGAPORE/MANILA, May 22 (Reuters) - Mobile phone retailers
in some Asian countries are refusing to accept Huawei devices
for trade-ins, as more consumers look to offload their device on
worries Google suspending business with the Chinese firm will
disrupt services.
Google GOOGL.O has said it will comply with an order by
U.S. President Donald Trump to stop supplying Huawei, meaning
current owners of Huawei phones face being cut off from updates
of the Android operating system from late August. New phones
will lose access to popular apps such as YouTube and Chrome.
Against this backdrop, some customers in Singapore and the
Philippines have rushed to sell their Huawei phones, according
to retailers and online marketplace data.
But there are few takers.
"If we buy something that is useless, how are we going to
sell it?," said Dylan On, a salesman at Wanying Pte Ltd, a
Singapore retail and repair shop.
"It's not that Huawei is a bad product. It's a very good
product. It's just that nobody wants to buy it now because of
U.S. policy," he said, adding he was looking to sell existing
Huawei stock online to overseas buyers in hopes they are less
aware of current events.
When contacted by Reuters, a Huawei spokeswoman said the
company "will continue to provide security updates and
after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone
and tablet products".
The company said previously it is developing its own phone
software and it can still use an "open source" version of
Android that lacks access to Google apps. Huawei also went ahead
with a new phone launch in Britain on Tuesday, even as the
number of users trading in their devices rose in Asia.
Previously, about five people a day were looking to trade in
their Huawei phones, but that has jumped to 20 in the last two
days, said Zack, a salesman at Mobile Square in Singapore who
declined to give his last name.
"Normally, you would see people wanting to trade their old
phones as they want to replace them with new ones," he added.
"Now you're seeing people wanting to trade in the latest one."
Carousell, Singapore's most popular online marketplace, said
the number of Huawei phone sales more than doubled the day the
U.S. order was announced.
Huawei smartphones had a 14% share of the Singapore market
last year, according to research firm Canalys.
PHILIPPINES
Mobile phone retailers in the Philippines are also staying
away from Huawei products.
"We are no longer accepting Huawei phones. It will not be
bought by our clients anymore," Hamida Norhamida, a saleswoman
of new and used phones in Manila's Greenhills shopping centre
told Reuters, adding that she felt relieved to have sold off her
stock of Huawei P30 Pro ahead of Google's Monday announcement.
Another phone salesperson at Greenhills said she would only
buy Huawei phones at a 50% discount.
"Selling it will be a gamble," said the saleswoman, who
would give her name only as Thelma.
But some see this as an opportunity to get a quality phone
on the cheap. "My immediate reaction was worry that my current
Huawei could be worthless," Xin Yi, 24 year-old student from
Singapore, told Reuters. "But Google said current Huawei users
will not be affected ... after that, I was relieved."
She added that she was now in the market for a new Huawei
model at a marked-down price.
Earlier on Wednesday, Japanese telcos KDDI Corp and SoftBank
Corp's 9434.T low-cost mobile brand Ymobile said they would
delay the launch of Huawei P30 Lite smartphone which was due to
go on sale on Friday. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SoftBank brand Ymobile to delay launch of Huawei P30 Lite phone
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