A bird's-eye view of Huawei's data center in the Guian New Area of Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou Province. Photo: VCG

Huawei will release its P40 phone series in Paris at an online event on Thursday, and industry analysts said the launch may help push up Huawei's phone shipments in the short term and even surpass those of rival Apple, whose supply woes linger as the coronavirus pandemic spirals globally. 

The new handset is drawing much attention in the industry, as the next P series devices are expected to come with an updated version of Emotion UI, EMUI10.1, backed up by Huawei's self-developed ecosystem.

Self-developed apps and functions such as Huawei Hetu map in support of an artificial intelligence (AI) environment, Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) that replaces Google's GMS, and Huawei Search are expected to be installed on the EMUI10.1, according to media reports.

Huawei's scheduled launch on Thursday comes amid a spreading coronavirus pandemic that has reduced demand and disrupted the supply chains, which have curtailed production of many smartphone makers around the world.

For instance, Foxconn has not found enough workers in its Shanghai plant, which houses Apple's computer assembly lines.

It has to transport workers daily from its plant in Zhengzhou to meet that shortage, a human resources (HR) manager in Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant, Central China's Henan Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

However, the problem does not affect Huawei, as with its advantage in domestic resources and a broad work recovery in China, the company's output is quickly recovering and it will be ready to start mass production of its new phones, Xiang Ligang, a Beijing-based veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Huawei was among the first Chinese companies to resume production after the extended Chinese Spring Festival holiday - much earlier than most of its counterparts - according to Xiang.

As domestic demand is gradually recovering as the coronavirus epidemic levels off in China, and Apple's supply chain has yet to recover, Huawei's new phone series will help push up its shipments, and may even surpass Apple in the short term, analysts said.

However, the Chinese company still does not have access to some crucial US software such as updates of Google's Android operating system and GMS services on its latest phone series, which significantly affects the phones' overseas sales.

The EMUI10.1 is still likely to be designed, based on the Android OS instead of the much anticipated HarmonyOS, as there is still a pressing need to attract more software developers to make applications for the system, Xiang said, noting that the Chinese company may still have to count on a domestic sales boom in the short term.

The HarmonyOS is already installed in Huawei's smart TVs and watches, but not yet its smartphones, Xiang added.