Huawei Smartphones–The one to watch

Huawei (pronounced wa-way) is a company you may or may not have heard of.  You would be excused for not having heard of them as they are relatively unknown in the UK, but in fact you interact very regularly with their products and services, you just don’t know it.

A Chinese company, they are big, very big in fact and employ approximately 141,000 people globally.

So what do they do.  There company is split into different divisions but fundamentally they build communication devices from cellular network towers (routing you mobile phone calls) to WiFi routers, set-top boxed, 3G dongles and smartphones.

A wireless router or even a network provided smartphone you may own could well be produced by Huawei but branded by another company.

If you have heard of them then great!  What is your experience with Huawei and their products?

Many may have heard about Huawei only recently from CES or Mobile World Congress where they won awards for the Ascend P1 and the Ascend D Quad.

They have released a few own branded handsets in the UK but to date they have not been given much publicity well that is about to change.

Whilst my experience is not extensive, I am able to say that to date their products have been reliable, solid of a good quality offering value for money.

They do not aim to necessarily just be cheap but providing cost effective products that work and are reliable.

The Ascend G300 has become available in the UK and is getting fantastic reviews 4 or 5 out of 5 because it offers such value for money at approx. £100. Android operating system, 3G, 5 megapixel camera, 4” touchscreen, GPS and more!  This is good for the end user, the networks and Huawei.

Compared to other leading manufacturers they do not look to charge a premium or tell you their phone is best.  What Huawei do is produce a product that works, fits peoples requirements and simply gain bragging rights from user opinion, the let you decide what you think of the phone not what their marketing team want you to think.

They are in my opinion like the equivalent in the mobile space as to Honda in automotive.  They might not be the most desirable to all but they are innovative, reliable and well respected with low failure rates.

Massively successful is China, Huawei are now coming to the UK.  They want to become more well known.  We have seen LG, ZTE and others strive to create a market and they all have a share, but Huawei will be eating this up soon.  They are not on a mission to gain share at whatever it takes, they will gain it because they deserve it. We don’t have anything bad to say about and other providers products but here is why Huawei will be successful.

Huawei have an edge through.  They are so integral to the largest communications companies and technology firms in the world.  They build the very networks that we and other manufacturers rely upon.  The airtime/networks who they build the networks for ultimately drive volume in each country and awareness of devices.

Because they build the network, companies like Vodafone, O2, 3 and many more have trust in them because they have worked with them for many years.  Therefore they are more likely to push Huawei products than LG or Panasonic for example.

Their relationship and experience is key here.  Panasonic & LG make good products but they do not have the same connections with the major influencing parties quite like Huawei.

As another added edge, because they build the network internally they have the best data and experience to build phones with more reliable battery performance, signal strength and overall connectivity be it WiFi or 3G.

We rely on these connections we also rely on or products to last and perform the way we want.  Huawei know this and this is what they will strive for. 

Marketing and everything will inevitably come into it, but it wont be the same as many other well known technology brands.  The message they push will be quite different.

Just watch this space, Huawei will be a name you hear a lot in the coming years, I am sure.