Huawei's fate continues to hang in the balance with reports of a license extension to do business in the US, but the Chinese tech giant did have something to cheer about as far as the release of its foldable smartphone, Huawei Mate X, is concerned.
Huawei recently launched the highly anticipated 5G-compatible foldable smartphone in China and even though it is more ridiculously priced than the Samsung Galaxy Fold, it still sold out within seconds. Yes, you heard that right - the first batch of the Mate X, priced at a whopping 16,999 yuan ($2,420), was sold out in less than a minute.
The next batch of Huawei Mate X devices will go up for sale on Friday, Nov. 22. However, the smartphone is already available on some Chinese marketplaces unofficially. As Gizmochina pointed out, some third-party websites are selling the foldable device but for an exorbitantly high price.
The third-party sellers are charging as high as 60,000 Yuan ($8,557) for the Mate X, which is more than three times the company's official pricing. The reason behind this inflated price is the lack of supply in the market and Huawei has said that the device will only be available in limited quantities in China.
Users have been enamoured by the foldable ever since Huawei unveiled it in February this year and Chinese users would have no issue with the Mate X missing Google apps due to the US trade ban imposed on the company earlier this year. This is because Google apps like Gmail and Chrome, Google's Play Store and the associated Google Play Services already do not come included on phones sold domestically and are instead replaced with plenty of alternatives from Chinese companies.
The only thing that was holding the Mate X was its hefty price tag, which is $400 more than the Galaxy Fold. However, like Samsung's Galaxy Fold, it seems like the Mate X has also pulled a miracle out of its hat by selling out in under a minute. Of course, it has not yet been disclosed how many units were sold but it's safe to assume that the foldable did not bomb at launch.
