Barcelona: The third largest smartphone manufacturer Huawei’s main strategy is to have the right technology at the right price for consumers, Gene Jiao, President of Huawei Device Company Middle East, told Gulf News.
“Just by having a device on the market is not enough and you need to differentiate it from the crowd and that is what Huawei is doing right now,” he said.
The Chinese vendor started its mobile phone open markets business in 2010. Before that they were focusing on tie-ups with telco operators to sell their devices.
“In some markets we are number three and number four in some markets in the region in a short period of time,” Jiao said.
Huawei being a leader in telecom equipment manufacturer “has an advantage”.
“Huawei is in every house and every office right now but many do not know that. It can either be in the form of set-top box, routers, USB dongles and modems. The in-house production of technology is also a very good advantage for us so that we can speed up and make necessary changes in our production line. We have the speed, flexibility and technology,” he said.
Now it is “our duty to let people know about Huawei more. We are supporting our people’s lifestyles. Now we have the technology and product line up. Now we will be focusing more on marketing our products,” he said.
According to analysts, Huawei is geared up to take on Samsung and Apple with the launch of its new flagship device – Ascend P2 LTE smartphone – capable of a connection speed of 150 MB per second, the fastest available on the market.
“The Chinese company is now focusing now on the most important aspects like speed, longer battery life and impressive screen to customers,” said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner.
The Chinese company sold 60 per cent more smartphones last year to 32 million units.
“We have the Ascend P2 and are also showcasing the Ascend Mate, Windows phone W1 and Ascend D2 phones launched at CES. These new models will be available between March and May in the Middle East,” Jiao said
Last year Huawei launched 22 models from entry level to high-end smartphones with prices ranging between Dh69 and Dh1,699.
“China is the biggest market, followed by Japan, US and the Middle East which is growing very fast.”
Huawei has become the first vendor to launch the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate, the world’s biggest smartphone at CES.
“We are bringing a new technology and creating a new segment of users with Ascend Mate. How we perform depends on the end users. We are also the first to announce eight-core processor and will be available by year-end,” he said.
When asked whether end users need eight core processors, Jiao said technology and the demand for broadband hungry applications are growing on a yearly basis. Right now LTE is bit expensive, that is the case of every new technology and in another couple of years it will become very affordable. It is growing very fast.
“We are talks with many operators in the region for LTE devices. We already have tie ups with telco operators in Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. We will sell it in open market as well as to operators also,” he said.
Huawei is open to Mozilla’s new Firefox operating system which was launched at Barcelona.
“Today the competition is big and Huawei is very flexible. If demand is there we will be there. The mobile phone industry is very competitive and with new players entering the market and others strengthening their product line-up, this year is going to be difficult and different. This year we need to play it right to stay competitive,” Jiao said.
