(Yicai Global) Jan. 6 -- Honor, the budget smartphone and laptop brand that Huawei Technologies sold in November, has started buying chips again from US semiconductor firm Qualcomm now that it is no longer part of the blacklisted Chinese telecoms giant, a company insider told Yicai Global.

Unlike Huawei, Honor does not need special approval from the US commerce department to purchase software and hardware from American companies because it is not on the so-called Entity List, the person said. The US government blacklisted Shenzhen-based Huawei in May 2019 over national security concerns.

One of Honor’s suppliers is encouraging the brand to develop phones using San Diego-based Qualcomm’s fifth-generation wireless network chips, according to Chinese media reports yesterday that cited the supplier.

The US chipmaker is always open to working with Honor, Meng Pu, chairman of Qualcomm China, told Yicai Global last month. Honor has become a new company, but much of its management was retained, making communication and discussion of future opportunities easy, Meng said.

Huawei sold Honor to a new firm, Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, which was set up by the Shenzhen city government and more than 30 Huawei dealers, for a reported CNY100 billion (USD15.4 billion) on Nov. 17. Huawei no longer has a stake in the brand.

Honor helped to make Huawei the world’s second-largest smartphone supplier last year. It accounted for about a quarter of Huawei’s global shipments and one third of its domestic sales in the third quarter, according to market analytics firm Canalys. But with the United States ratcheting up sanctions against it, Huawei had no choice but to let it go, according to Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.

Once the ‘divorce’ was complete, Honor set about seeking to reconnect with Huawei’s former US suppliers. Last month it penned a deal with Microsoft allowing its MagicBook notebooks to come with the Windows 10 operating system pre-installed.

US sanctions mean key apps such as Google’s Play Store, Google Maps and Youtube are no longer accessible on Huawei phones and laptops, greatly affecting the user experience.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor