New HONOR CEO James Li Is All About Collaboration
TL;DR
- James Li, the new CEO of HONOR, has made a big debut at Mobile World Congress 2025.
- Li has repeatedly talked about collaboration, which appears to be the core of his new HONOR ALPHA Plan.
- However, Li has yet to discuss many specifics about its collaborations and goals.
For years now, George Zhao has been a mainstay at tech conferences around the world, especially Mobile World Congress. However, in January, the former CEO of HONOR stepped down unexpectedly, citing personal reasons. In Zhao’s place, a new HONOR CEO has emerged: James Li.
On stage at MWC during the HONOR keynote event, Li carried a lot of the same energy as Zhao, excitedly discussing what he thinks the future holds not just for his company but also for the industry at large. The keynote — titled the HONOR ALPHA Plan — featured quotes from famous philosophers, an explanation of the Greek alphabet, and even a tree-lighting ceremony with various HONOR partners, including Google and Qualcomm.
Ultimately, that’s what Li appears to be most focused on with his first foray as the leader of one of China’s most significant tech titans: collaboration. “All of us need to work together to maximize human potential to embrace an intelligent world,” he said, for example.
To represent the HONOR ALPHA Plan, the company uses a tree. At the root is collaboration within the tech industry, which, eventually, grows an enormous tree. Of course, the tree is AI-generated, which is also one of Li’s major focuses.
“As we move into the physical AI era, we need to open our industry boundaries and co-create a new paradigm for the AI ecosystem,” Li said. “This can be done by opening the industry’s AI capabilities to provide a platform for a wider range of devices, enabling seamless collaboration across different operating systems, and building a value-sharing ecosystem.”
One example given during the keynote was the idea of seamless integration across the major operating systems, including Android, iOS, and Windows. In the future, HONOR imagines people sharing files and data between the three operating systems without caring about the various artificial barriers the owners of those operating systems put up to prevent that from happening.
However, Li and the rest of HONOR’s presenters didn’t elaborate on how this will happen. Obviously, HONOR has had highly successful partnerships with Google, Qualcomm, and others, but those brands can’t influence what Apple does or doesn’t do. Without Apple, smooth integration between anything HONOR creates and anything Apple creates will be entirely up to Apple.
Still, it’s impossible not to see how excited Li is about taking on this and the other challenges HONOR faces.
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