Samsung can, so can Huawei

[streetcry]

China's Huawei to offer smartphone for high-end market


Chinese telecoms giant Huawei will launch a new smartphone on Tuesday to better compete with high-end rivals like Apple and Samsung overseas, a company official said.

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The logo of Chinese tech giant Huawei on a building on its campus in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. (AFP/Aron Tam)

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SHANGHAI: Chinese telecoms giant Huawei will launch a new smartphone on Tuesday to better compete with high-end rivals like Apple and Samsung overseas, a company official said.


Huawei will unveil the Ascend P6 in London in one of its major smartphone launches of the year, Huawei spokesman Roland Sladek told AFP.
The move is "significant" because it marks a global launch held outside Huawei's home base of China and will be a stand-alone event, unlike previous launches at industry trade shows, he said.


The venue for the launch is London's Roundhouse, Dow Jones Newswires reported, a legendary cultural venue which has previously hosted shows by rock icons such as Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.


"It's a very well-designed, very appealing phone - one of the thinnest phones in the world," Sladek said.
"It's certainly competing with Apple but beyond that it's really looking for an audience who look for a piece of modern fashion," he said.


Starting as a provider of telecom network equipment, Huawei has sought to make inroads into mobile devices by selling smartphones under its own brand over the past three years.


The company, founded by a former engineer in the Chinese army, has also found controversy overseas for its traditional line of business.
The US Congress last year warned network equipment supplied by Huawei could be used for spying and called for its exclusion from government contracts and acquisitions.


Huawei has denied those claims and accused the US government of protectionism.
In China's highly competitive smartphone segment, Huawei held a 10.1 per cent share in the first quarter of this year, higher than Apple's 6.4 per cent, according to consultancy Analysys International.


South Korea's Samsung was the market leader for smartphones in China with 17.3 perc ent for the period, its data showed.
"The handset products Huawei launched before were relatively low-end and low-priced," said Wang Jun of Analysys International.


"The launch of this higher quality handset is related to Huawei's own strategy of product excellence," he said.
"The value of its brand was not well reflected before, when it used low-priced products to grab market share."


Although a major vendor in China and some other international markets, Huawei has limited smartphone sales in the United States, where it launched a phone using Microsoft's Windows Phone platform.


Huawei has a reputation for secrecy which the company has tried to shed after US claims it was a security threat.
Company founder Ren Zhengfei gave his first media briefing outside China by speaking to journalists in New Zealand in May.


- AFP/fl

 

[yellowarse]

prc phone, i will never buy them.

Huawei is the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturer and supplier, and the 3rd largest smartphone maker. China's the world's largest cellphone market. All iPhones and HTC phones are made in China. And you think PRC can't make phones?

It's time Singaporeans crawled out from under their rock; the world out there is a lot larger than this tiny red dot.

 

[streetcry]

[h=2]China’s Huawei Wants to Be Big in Smartphones[/h]Huawei seems an unlikely threat to Apple and Samsung, but the Chinese company, whose telecom-equipment business has outpaced Western rivals, thinks it can repeat the success with smartphones.


By Juro Osawa
SHENZHEN, China—Huawei Technologies Co. seems an unlikely threat to Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the global smartphone market. But the Chinese company, whose telecommunications-equipment business has outpaced most Western rivals, thinks it can repeat the success with handsets.


To establish itself as a smartphone brand, Huawei is increasing marketing efforts and plans to offer a premium phone—even as it faces controversy in the U.S. over its mainstay wireless-network business.


“Apple and Samsung are indeed in strong positions today, but things change so fast now,” said Wan Biao, a Huawei board director who heads the company’s handset business. Huawei’s goal, Mr. Wan said, is to become a leading global brand for smartphones and other smart devices within the next five years.


There are many hurdles. Few consumers associate Chinese brands with premium gadgets, and Huawei’s market presence is still mainly in the low-end segment. About half of the company’s smartphones shipped globally last year were priced between $100 and $150, according to research firm Canalys.


Also not helping: Last year’s U.S. congressional report citing concerns that Huawei’s network equipment—though not handsets—might enable Beijing to spy on Americans. Huawei strongly denied the allegations.


“The perception in the U.S. is surely a challenge that we need to overcome,” Mr. Wan said. It is important for Huawei’s consumer products to deliver a positive message, he said.


In the fourth quarter last year, Huawei became the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor behind Samsung and Apple, selling 10.8 million units world-wide in the quarter, according to research firm IDC. Still, Huawei missed its earlier target of selling 50 million to 60 million smartphones in 2012, selling only 32 million. This year, the company aims to sell 60 million units, Mr. Wan said.


Huawei is preparing what it has described as a new “premium smartphone” for the second half of this year, though the company declined to provide details on the new device. “I think this year will be the year when we can bring more surprises to the industry,” said Shao Yang, chief marketing officer for Huawei’s handset business.


For years, Huawei—which sells network equipment such as base stations, antennas and transmitters—leveraged its long-established relationships with telecom operators to supply handsets marketed under the carriers’ names. But in the past year, the company has shifted to Huawei-branded smartphones.


It has also opened more than 20 Huawei retail stores, mostly in China, and plans to open more in the Middle East and Latin America, the company said.


Other than Samsung and Apple, Huawei’s rivals in the global smartphone market include HTC Corp. and Nokia Corp., as well as Chinese competitors such as Lenovo Group Ltd. and ZTE Corp.


Branding efforts will be important in markets such as India and Southeast Asia, where phones are sold mainly through open-market retailers rather than telecom carriers, according to Canalys analyst Rachel Lashford. And “Huawei is still lacking high-end products that can really speak to consumers,” she said.


Also, for many Western consumers, “Huawei is a difficult name to pronounce,” she added.
There were discussions in the past about whether to create a new brand name for consumer products, but Huawei—pronounced HWA-wey—has decided to keep its identity consistent, Mr. Yang said.


The company has made an effort to get its name out there. In November, it launched a $30 million global campaign for the year-end holiday to promote its Ascend line of smartphones. The two-month-long campaign featured an online game in which, according to Huawei, more than three million people participated. After registering with email and social-media accounts, players scored points by inviting their friends and entering the serial numbers on Huawei products they owned.


In February, Huawei took the 150 winners from more than 30 countries on a three-day tour of Dubai, which included a helicopter ride, cruise and gala dinner at Burj Al Arab, the famous sailboat-shaped luxury hotel.


In Europe, Huawei has been marketing at more sporting events. In August, it sponsored the Spanish professional soccer club Atletico de Madrid for the UEFA Super Cup, placing a big logo on each Atletico player’s chest during the annual match organized by the Union of European Football Associations.


In 2012, Samsung spent $401 million advertising its phones in the U.S., while Apple spent $333 million, according to ad research and consulting firm Kantar Media.


Mr. Yang wouldn’t disclose how much Huawei spends, but said the company wouldn’t put as much on marketing as Apple and Samsung.
“Heavily investing in advertising is one model, but this is not the only model,” Mr. Yang said.


Write to Juro Osawa at [email protected]