Huawei to break into smartphones next year
Published: 10 November, 2008
Unbowed by its failure to sell a major stake in its handset business earlier this year - at least for the price it wanted - Huawei is planning a big expansion of the unit under its own steam. It has already hinted at plans to increase its low end activities in India, and has now outlined plans for Android and Symbian smartphones for the first half of next year, defying the likely downturn.
The Chinese company will also launch a new embedded 3G module at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress this month, building on the boom in this market and its success with operators offering dongle-based services, like Hutchison 3.
James Chen, director of marketing for Huawei's terminals division, said the economic crisis will extend the life of low end feature phowhich have been its main handset product, giving the company time and cash to deliver smartphones.
"Our intention was to invite private equity to join us," said Chen in a press conference. "There are many international opportunities but we lacked the funds for them." However, Huawei now believes the growth of its handset business will enable it to push forward, and it is not looking for a technology partner, though it may revisit the financial markets once they are more stable.
"Huawei has had a late take-off in smartphones, but our focus on customization means we can still take the lead and achieve our targets," Chen added, highlighting the main competitive edge that smaller phonemakers can claim against Nokia - the willingness to work closely with operators and web services companies to create phones for their brand and user experience, a tack also being pursued by Hutchison's INQ division.
Huawei already has a Windows Mobile smartphone, and plans to launch Android and Symbian spartphones in the first half of 2009, targeting operator-branded devices.
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