‘Mission impossible’ is possible

If Huawei has a mission and vision, it would probably be to conquer the world. The China-based company is aiming for the No. 1 position in the smartphone category, said Shao Yang, vice president for marketing for Huawei Device, during a news briefing at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

Shao was surprisingly candid when he admitted that Hauwei devices fell somewhere in between the iPhone from Apple ("expensive") and the Samsung Galaxy series ("still expensive for the consumer and the operator").

"In 2009, our partners (mobile carriers) told us 'you must change,'" he said.

In this context, change meant going into the smartphone business.

Huawei Device Co. Ltd. is ranked No. 3 in global smartphone shipments, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, just three years after the firm embarked on the smartphone business.

The company in was founded by 26 years old Ren Zhangfie, a former engineer in the Chinese military, It is now the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012.

The company's progress from being a reseller of commodity PBX equipment in China to a global telecom equipment giant with $34-billion revenue is the stuff legends are made of.

As of end-2012, Huawei’s products are deployed in over 140 countries in the world, serving more than a third of the world’s population.

In July this year, it launched the world’s thinnest smartphone, the Ascend P6, which boasts of a 6.18mm ultra-slim design and a 4.7-inch screen.

"Huawei was a star performer as global shipments grew 67 percent annually to 12.7 million units in Q3 2013. Huawei captured 5 percent share and became the world's third largest smartphone vendor," said Woody Oh, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

So what does Huawei Device have to offer in terms of smartphone techonology?

"We offer advanced technology. Huawei smartphones have a premium quality at reasonable prices. The phones are not cheap but they are not expensive," said Shao.

“We are building our brand through three key words. First is innovation. We want to be different. People want a new experience, so we try to come up with something new as often as possible. Next is achievable premium. We will produce premium phones but not at very high prices. People can buy good products at good prices,” he added.

Shao admitted there was a stigma attached to "Made in China" products. One is that the products are priced lower than Western or Japanese brands because they are of low quality. The other one is that the technology has been copied from those of other brands.

It may be "mission impossible," said Shao, but Huawei's goal is to overtake Samsung and Apple in the smartphone category. The brand has been called the "world's biggest underdog." A tech expert said Huawei reminded him of Samsung six years ago, when it was on the cusp of becoming a big global brand.

"It's a long way before we start leading the smartphone market. There are still a number of things we need to improve on like after-sales service in some countries but we are getting there."

The biggest market of Huawei's $9.3-billion consumer business is China, followed by Myanmar, Western Europe, Japan and the United States. In Myanmar, it has a market share of over 70 percent.

Research and development are very important to Huawei. The company has 20 R&D centers around the world including those in China, the United States, Germany, Sweden and Russia. Of its 140,000 employees, around 46 percent are engaged in R&D.

Huawei has four smartphone series in the market.. These are the Diamond (D) series, Platinum (P) series, Gold (G) series, and, the Youth (Y) series. Of the four, the G series is so far the most popular, accounting for about 44 percent of total smartphone sales, followed by the Y series at 40 percent. The D and P series have a combined 16 percent share, Shao said. The G series includes the recently introduced Ascend G610 dual-SIM, dual standby handset that also supports 3G. The phone features a 5-inch IPS QHD display and powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor. It also packs a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.

The Y series includes the Ascend Y320, embedded with 4.0-inch display, a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and coupled with the latest Android 4.2 operating system. Then there is the Y220 handset that sports a 3.5-inch touchscreen HVGA with a resolution of 320x480 pixels and a 1GHz dual-core processor, and complemented by 256MB RAM. The G610, the Y320 and the Y220 are now available in the Philippines just in time for the gift-giving season.

Huawei is now aiming to ship 20 million smartphones in Q4 this year.

That's a significant increase from the 13.5 million smartphones that the Chinese company shipped in the last quarter, said Shao. He added the company shouldn't have any trouble reaching a total of 55 million smartphones sales in 2013 combined. Up until Q4, said Shao, the company has managed to ship 35 million smartphones.

Shao added Huawei was increasing its presence overseas. In Latin America, Huawei smartphones have seen a jump of 150 percent, while in Japan and Western Europe they grew by 40 percent. In the Middle East and China the growth was smaller at 8 percent.

Overall, 16 percent of total smartphone shipments of the company were mid-range handsets, mainly the P6 and D2 line. The Huawei Ascend P6 is selling quite well and the company expects it to exceed the 10 million units sold mark.