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Topic: Smartphones

Huawei wants to overtake Apple, Samsung in 5 years

Summary: Chinese telecom giant Huawei is looking to challenge Apple and Samsung in consumer products by leveraging its dominance in network infrastructure.

Liu Jiayi

By Liu Jiayi for View from China |

Chinese telecom giant Huawei is looking to challenge Apple and Samsung in consumer products by leveraging its dominance in network infrastructure.

Since the launch of its five-year plan, beginning in 2012, Huawei has been shifting its focus expansion from network equipment and services provider to a high-end consumer devices manufacturer.

"Five years ago, neither Apple nor Samsung was such a big player in the mobile device industry as they both are today," said Wan Biao, the company's chief executive of device unit, at the recent Mobile World Congress 2013 held in Barcelona. "You can't predict what Huawei will be like exactly after five years, but we will at least become the industry's top three, probably the biggest."

Huawei launched its latest 4G device Ascend P2 at the mobile tradeshow, proclaiming to offer the fastest LTE smartphone in the world.

"Huawei is not only a device manufacturer, but also a network [equipment vendor]," said Wan. "We develop chips for the phone [as well as] network equipment, and that is unique--no other companies cavn do that, not even Samsung."

He said the company now invest 10 percent of its revenue into research and development, and commands a software engineering team of 45,000. Hence, it has the ability to develop major technologies and devices in the next few years.

"The challenge and opportunity that Huawei has at the moment is in the consumer-end market. Samsung and Apple are the big two, but we will have our chances [to grab the market] and we are marching toward the right direction," said Wan. "Huawei also has the best pricing strategy, [and] we will launch a new top-end smartphone in the second half of 2013."

Topics: Smartphones, Apple, Networking, Samsung, China, Huawei

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8 comments
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  • Chinese goods

    The means of production in China of goods must be brought back to the west if those goods are to be sold in the west. Let the Chinese boast about dominating their own market which is big enough and ignore all that. It is time well overdue to adopt the principle: goods sold in a particular continent should be manufactured there. I personally would not buy any Apple product.
    Cheetah43
    Reply Vote

    • No

      >The means of production in China of goods must be brought back to the west if those goods are to be sold in the west.

      And I'm sure that rule applies to Samsung and Apple.

      Oh wait! It doesn't!
      dunamis100
      Reply 1 Vote

    • IDK

      Have you seen the working conditions at these factories or the EXTREME pollution of the cities that house them? Keep all that BS there and let the Chinese slowly poison and kill themselves over a quick buck.
      jhnnybgood
      Reply Vote

      • All about the money

        Don't forget the lousy pay for the workers. There is a reason these devices are made in China. They are much, much cheaper than making them in the US due to no minimum wage or pollution laws. There is also a lot of corruption for oversite officials to look the other way.

        US companies (Apple is far from alone here) and now even Samsung are then able to enjoy a higher profit margin.
        MajorlyCool
        Reply Vote

  • Not sure if I want a Huawei anything storing my data

    "Huawei is not only a device manufacturer, but also a network [equipment vendor]."

    "Huawei is not only a network [equipment vendor], but also wholly controlled by a paranoid government funding an active cyberattack organization. No worries for consumers!"
    harvey_rabbit
    Reply Vote

  • Huawei

    has a loooooooooong way to go. Their build quality for handsets is about as bad as it gets (think LG back in the flip phone days).
    Champ_Kind
    Reply Vote

  • If they want to they will

    Huawei has the resources to develop and subsidise entry into Western markets of pretty much any electronic device they choose. Their cash and credit is so large they can exceede any western company they wish. They will get OS and build quality up to acceptable levels within say 3 years if they want to
    But I reckon costs will be interesting, I foresee manufacturing costs in China increasing as social change keeps coming. Already China outsources to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as certain tasks are cheaper there.
    Their market does not have to be USA, its likely to be Africa, the largest and fastest growing featurephone market in the world, soon to start buying smartphones
    sonnet37
    Reply Vote

  • Laughable

    Considering how much flackl Huawei got from the US & Canadian governments regarding using their networking, will those in western countries would buy one of their phones knowing they could be eavesdropping?
    How the Chinese government would love it if some of the purchasers were individuals working in a government!
    Wan Biao seems to be drinking the same Koolaid as the head of Acer - the latter saying they would be number one PC maker - since that talk, Acer went from third to fourth and could drop to fifth!
    Gisabun
    Reply Vote
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