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Huawei targets Android at major Chinese 3G boom
Published: 7 February, 2010
Tags >> China | Huawei Technologies | Handset | TD-SCDMA | Android
Last year's Mobile World Congress was a letdown for the Android crowd. After a huge amount of pre-show build-up, there were few actual announcements, though the HTC Magic did make its debut. This year will be very different, with the Google OS set to make a big splash in handsets and also mobile internet devices - and it will be able to seize even more profile because of the absence of Nokia from the show floor.
Among the smartphones to be launched will be the HTC Bravo, Android follow-ups from Samsung and LG, and we might even see a glimpse of the Motorola Devour. Also aiming to raise their profile will be ZTE and Huawei, and the latter says it will unveil not only Android phones, to follow up its cost sensitive Pulse, but a "home use internet device". This is expected to be some kind of media hub/tablet, following somewhat in the footsteps of the iPad, and Huawei will also unveil two e-readers.
Although Huawei regards Android as a strategic route to improve its performance in western handset markets, it will also be targeting its home operators, which are committed to Android, with their own software interfaces and apps overlays. China Mobile could launch as many as 30 new handsets this year using its implementation of Android, Open Mobile System (OMS), according to Chinese press reports. There are currently eight of these phones the market from LG, Lenovo, Dell, Dopod, Phillips, Hisense and Motorola.
The Chinese 3G handset market, after a slow start, will gather pace in 2010. According to research from iSuppli shipments will grow sixfold this year, to hit almost 43m units, up from 7.2m in 2009. "Chinese carriers plan to provide more than RMB50bn ($7.3bn) worth of subsidies to promote the domestic 3G handset market in 2010," said analyst Kevin Wang. The highest growth will come on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network, because of its larger size and the lead cellco's more aggressive subsidies. These phones will rise from 1.3m units in 2009 to 20.4m units.
