Dubai
After becoming a formidable name in the smartphone industry, Huawei has set its sights on the PC industry and an artificial intelligence (AI) chip for mobiles to diversify its business and boost revenues.
The Chinese company is currently ranked world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer after Samsung and Apple and does not want to rest on its laurels.
Speaking to Gulf News in an exclusive interview, Gene Jiao, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group, Middle East and Africa, said Huawei is serious about the PC business and it is not only about the hardware but also the combination of software, connectivity and communication.
“We are into the second year of PC business. We invest at least 10 per cent of our annual revenues in R&D investment on future technologies research. We have taken steps to ensure that we are moving in the right direction and being relevant in the world of consumer electronics,” he said.
Over the last 10 years, Huawei has invested more than $38 billion in total. In 2015, Huawei invested $9.2 billion into R&D and close to 15 per cent of its revenues in 2016.
Huawei is the now the world’s leading suppliers of telecoms equipment, overtaking Sweden’s Ericsson and aims to be the number one in smartphones by 2021.
The company sold 139 million units worldwide in 2016 and targets 150 million units for this year. Huawei shipped 34.55 million phones in the first quarter of this year, up 21.6 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
Apart from this, Huawei has smartwatches, WiFi routers, x89 serves and cloud businesses.
Jiao said that the MateBook models have already been launched in Saudi Arabia and will be launched in the UAE soon.
PC sales have been falling for the past 11 quarters but Wan Biao, COO of Huawei’s consumer business group, told media in June that the company expects to become number one PC maker in three to five years by overtaking HP and Lenovo.
“We are confident because of our powerful innovation capabilities design and manufacturing. Some technologies are the same in the PC when compared to smartphones but with the development of AI, VR and AR technologies, the chances to succeed are stronger and will see the laptop market take off again,” he said.
He added that the company’s focus will be on enterprises segment and will adopt a similar strategy from its smartphone segment to its PC lines by concentrating on the high-end markets.
“One of the crucial points is the connectivity of all things and we are developing our business over these notions,” he said.
Huawei believes that with new technologies and Internet of Things, it has huge growth opportunities.
Moreover, Jiao said that AI will be a part of digital life in the future. Right now, it is an over-consumed subject. Smartphones are the most popular gateway to the digital life.
“Mate 10 will have AI capabilities. Mate series is the most powerful smartphone for the company and will have the latest features,” he said.
If rumours are true, Mate 10 will be launched later this year with a 10nm Kirin 970 chip with a CPU, a GPU, and a hardware engine for machine-learning algorithms.
Jiao said that even though Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer, the company is not focusing on volumes but to boost its value.
“Our average selling price has grown 25 per cent in the last six months. We want to enhance our price level from the low and middle to the high end. We want to construct a premium brand,” he said.
Despite the growth, the Chinese company is facing stiff challenges from other Chinese players like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi in major markets like India and China.
“We are unfazed by other Chinese brands as we are the still the top player in China, we have our own patents and own chipset. It has to be seen how long other players can survive. Many players have vanished from the markets,” he said.
