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Huawei aims to become tier one smartphone supplier
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Huawei eyes $4 billion investment in broadband
With 4K video and cloud computing on the rise, the Chinese company argues that fixed broadband must improve.
By Don Reisinger
September 25, 2014 8:35 AM PDT
A key component of Huawei's broadband
investment will be research and development.
Huawei, the China-based smartphone manufacturer and telecommunications company, has already invested heavily in mobile technology and is now eyeing fixed broadband as its next growth opportunity.
Over the next three years, Huawei will invest $4 billion in fixed broadband technology, the company announced late on Wednesday. Huawei said its investment will center on products and services that will create a better broadband offering for end users.
Fixed broadband -- essentially the connections that run between service providers and homes and offices -- can include cable service, fiber optics, DSL and T1 connections. Huawei's investment in fixed broadband is somewhat surprising given its recent focus on mobile technology, especially its push into mobile devices with phones like the Ascend P7 and budget-friendly Ascend Y550.
In a statement, Huawei argued that its focus has long been "customer needs and adding value through core technologies." The company believes that fixed broadband will be a crucial component in our lives in the coming years as heavy data needs continue to pile up.
Huawei might have a point. With streaming video and 4k, or Ultra HD, television taking hold in the word, the need for reliable broadband continues to grow. Huawei is also considering the impact big data and cloud computing could have on enterprise customers that rely on fixed broadband for their daily operations.
A key component in Huawei's mission is to invest in research and development. The company will specifically determine how new chips, algorithms and photonics -- the use of light for the transmission of data -- could improve its broadband services.
CNET has contacted Huawei for comment. We will update this story when we have more information.
With 4K video and cloud computing on the rise, the Chinese company argues that fixed broadband must improve.
By Don Reisinger
September 25, 2014 8:35 AM PDT
A key component of Huawei's broadband
investment will be research and development.
Huawei, the China-based smartphone manufacturer and telecommunications company, has already invested heavily in mobile technology and is now eyeing fixed broadband as its next growth opportunity.
Over the next three years, Huawei will invest $4 billion in fixed broadband technology, the company announced late on Wednesday. Huawei said its investment will center on products and services that will create a better broadband offering for end users.
Fixed broadband -- essentially the connections that run between service providers and homes and offices -- can include cable service, fiber optics, DSL and T1 connections. Huawei's investment in fixed broadband is somewhat surprising given its recent focus on mobile technology, especially its push into mobile devices with phones like the Ascend P7 and budget-friendly Ascend Y550.
In a statement, Huawei argued that its focus has long been "customer needs and adding value through core technologies." The company believes that fixed broadband will be a crucial component in our lives in the coming years as heavy data needs continue to pile up.
Huawei might have a point. With streaming video and 4k, or Ultra HD, television taking hold in the word, the need for reliable broadband continues to grow. Huawei is also considering the impact big data and cloud computing could have on enterprise customers that rely on fixed broadband for their daily operations.
A key component in Huawei's mission is to invest in research and development. The company will specifically determine how new chips, algorithms and photonics -- the use of light for the transmission of data -- could improve its broadband services.
CNET has contacted Huawei for comment. We will update this story when we have more information.
cirr
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South Korea must count as THE most closest smartphone market in the world。
Huawei of China enters Korean phone market
Sept 24,2014
Huawei’s Honor 6
Huawei will start selling smartphones in Korea next month through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) subsidiaries of LG U+, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier.
It will be the second major Chinese smartphone manufacturer to enter the Korean market since ZTE launched its Z phone through SK Telecom’s MVNOs in 2012.
The phone will be a modified model of Huawei’s top-of-the-line Honor 6, which can work on LTE-A and VoLTE (Voice LTE) networks.
With a five-inch screen and full HD display, the Honor 6 has a 13-megapixel camera. The price is expected to be between 300,000 won and 500,000 won ($288 and $481).
“We have not yet decided the exact date of releasing the Huawei Honor 6, as we are still discussing with Huawei Korea the amount of orders and the prices,” said Yang Dong-kyu, a spokesman for Media Log, an MVNO subsidiary of LG U+. “The launch date is also not yet decided.”
The new Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act will take effect on Oct. 1, and Korean telecom companies will be forced to stop competing with each other by issuing heavy discounts on smartphones.
As a result, Chinese manufacturers are getting more interested in competing on price in the Korean market.
The Honor 6 is equipped with the latest Android 4.4 operating system, but is about half the price of Korean smartphones. The Honor 6 retails for $300 to $400 overseas.
“As local manufacturers and mobile carriers will be banned from providing excessive subsidies on smartphones, Huawei phones will likely have a much greater competitive advantage over domestic smartphones,” said a smartphone retailer in Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul.
Honor 6 is not the only foreign-brand smartphone that will be entering the Korean market next month. Sony Korea yesterday held a media day at the IFC Mall in Yeouido to introduce its latest smartphones, the Z3 and Z3 Compact, which first appeared at the IFA exhibition held in Berlin earlier this month.
The company said preorders for the smartphones will start on Sunday on its website and Sony stores.
Sony Korea said it hasn’t set the retail price on the devices, but many industry experts are estimating the prices at north of 500,000 won.
Apple’s iPhone 6 is expected to arrive in the Korean market next month as well.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is coming out with its Galaxy Note 4, which starts sales from Friday.
Although Samsung Electronics set the price of the Galaxy Note 4 in the mid-900,000 won range, the lowest among the Note series, that is still higher than Huawei’s Honor 6.
LG Electronics will continue to push its G3 and G3 Category 6 flagship models, along with the clamshell Wine Smart, which is targeted at a niche market.
It aims to further expand its market share, which reached 30 percent in the second half of this year.
Pantech is determined to maintain its 5 percent market share with the Vega Popup Note, exclusively sold by SK Telecom, although it has no plans to launch a new product as it is under court receivership.
BY kim jung-yoon [kjy@joongang.co.kr]
Huawei of China enters Korean phone market
Sept 24,2014
Huawei’s Honor 6
Huawei will start selling smartphones in Korea next month through mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) subsidiaries of LG U+, the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier.
It will be the second major Chinese smartphone manufacturer to enter the Korean market since ZTE launched its Z phone through SK Telecom’s MVNOs in 2012.
The phone will be a modified model of Huawei’s top-of-the-line Honor 6, which can work on LTE-A and VoLTE (Voice LTE) networks.
With a five-inch screen and full HD display, the Honor 6 has a 13-megapixel camera. The price is expected to be between 300,000 won and 500,000 won ($288 and $481).
“We have not yet decided the exact date of releasing the Huawei Honor 6, as we are still discussing with Huawei Korea the amount of orders and the prices,” said Yang Dong-kyu, a spokesman for Media Log, an MVNO subsidiary of LG U+. “The launch date is also not yet decided.”
The new Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act will take effect on Oct. 1, and Korean telecom companies will be forced to stop competing with each other by issuing heavy discounts on smartphones.
As a result, Chinese manufacturers are getting more interested in competing on price in the Korean market.
The Honor 6 is equipped with the latest Android 4.4 operating system, but is about half the price of Korean smartphones. The Honor 6 retails for $300 to $400 overseas.
“As local manufacturers and mobile carriers will be banned from providing excessive subsidies on smartphones, Huawei phones will likely have a much greater competitive advantage over domestic smartphones,” said a smartphone retailer in Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul.
Honor 6 is not the only foreign-brand smartphone that will be entering the Korean market next month. Sony Korea yesterday held a media day at the IFC Mall in Yeouido to introduce its latest smartphones, the Z3 and Z3 Compact, which first appeared at the IFA exhibition held in Berlin earlier this month.
The company said preorders for the smartphones will start on Sunday on its website and Sony stores.
Sony Korea said it hasn’t set the retail price on the devices, but many industry experts are estimating the prices at north of 500,000 won.
Apple’s iPhone 6 is expected to arrive in the Korean market next month as well.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is coming out with its Galaxy Note 4, which starts sales from Friday.
Although Samsung Electronics set the price of the Galaxy Note 4 in the mid-900,000 won range, the lowest among the Note series, that is still higher than Huawei’s Honor 6.
LG Electronics will continue to push its G3 and G3 Category 6 flagship models, along with the clamshell Wine Smart, which is targeted at a niche market.
It aims to further expand its market share, which reached 30 percent in the second half of this year.
Pantech is determined to maintain its 5 percent market share with the Vega Popup Note, exclusively sold by SK Telecom, although it has no plans to launch a new product as it is under court receivership.
BY kim jung-yoon [kjy@joongang.co.kr]
cirr
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Huawei Is New Official Smartphone Provider For Officials In China
24 Sep 2014, 05:10, by Peter K
Back in August, we told you that the Chinese government officials and agencies representatives have been officially barred from using Apple products due to some serious privacy concerns. The reason for this are the inter-global intelligence tensions between China and the USA, but it seems that Cupertino's greatest rival, Samsung, has been dragged into the spy-related saga as well. The smartphones of the South Korea-based giant are now also among the banned mobile devices that Chinese officials should stay away from. The reasons for this move are once again of security ones, but it was also said that the Chinese government will try to further boost the development of some local manufacturers.
Enter Huawei, one of the largest smartphone makers in China and in the world as a whole, the new official mobile device provider for Chinese officials and government employees. This will allegedly help the Chinese government and agencies create a better integrity between one another. Nonetheless, Huawei also got involved in the spy games at a certain point - allegedly, it was a victim of NSA and has been spied upon by the latter.
Samsung, on the other hand, joins the likes of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and other Western companies that saw China gradually (and sometimes literally out of the blue) move away from their products. The largest country in the world also is developing its own, Linux-based operating system (COS).
Huawei is the new official smartphone provider for Chinese officials, Samsung and Apple outlawed
24 Sep 2014, 05:10, by Peter K
Back in August, we told you that the Chinese government officials and agencies representatives have been officially barred from using Apple products due to some serious privacy concerns. The reason for this are the inter-global intelligence tensions between China and the USA, but it seems that Cupertino's greatest rival, Samsung, has been dragged into the spy-related saga as well. The smartphones of the South Korea-based giant are now also among the banned mobile devices that Chinese officials should stay away from. The reasons for this move are once again of security ones, but it was also said that the Chinese government will try to further boost the development of some local manufacturers.
Enter Huawei, one of the largest smartphone makers in China and in the world as a whole, the new official mobile device provider for Chinese officials and government employees. This will allegedly help the Chinese government and agencies create a better integrity between one another. Nonetheless, Huawei also got involved in the spy games at a certain point - allegedly, it was a victim of NSA and has been spied upon by the latter.
Samsung, on the other hand, joins the likes of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and other Western companies that saw China gradually (and sometimes literally out of the blue) move away from their products. The largest country in the world also is developing its own, Linux-based operating system (COS).
Huawei is the new official smartphone provider for Chinese officials, Samsung and Apple outlawed
jkroo
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Oh, vibe z2 pro is really good. I don't follow up lenovo smartphone products for a while.
I think if vibe z2 pro set up a KIRIN 925 will be perfect.
Personally, I love Huawei Ascend Mate 7.
i have lenovo k900. the most solid build quality of all phones that i've ever owned. gonna get that metal vibe z2 pro when the price goes down..
k900
cirr
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Crisis In China
Samsung Fell to #4 Smartphone Maker in China in August
samsung-logo.png
25 SEPTEMBER 2014
Chinese smartphone vendors are increasing their global market share at an alarming rate.
According to sources in the financial investment industry on Sept. 24, four Chinese companies – Lenovo, Huawei, Xiaomi Tech, and ZTE – made up 25 percent of the global smartphone market in August
, a 12 percent year-on-year gain, which is the highest-ever result.
In particular, the upward trend of Lenovo's market share was noticeable. The Chinese Android phone manufacturer has maintained the third spot by steadily increasing its share with 7.5 percent in June, 8.0 percent in July, and 9.2 percent in August.
On the other hand, the position of Samsung Electronics and Apple, the two prominent smartphone makers, weakened owing to Chinese firms' good performances. Last month, Samsung and Apple comprised only 33.7 percent of the market with Samsung at 22.3 percent and Apple at 11.4 percent. The combined market share of the two companies was 39.9 percent in June, hovering below 40 percent for the first time in 21 months. Since then, the number has further decreased, with 35.1 percent in July and 33.7 percent in August.
Stock market analysts believe that Samsung has been losing its competitiveness more seriously than Apple. Between July and August, Apple's share of the global smartphone market dipped from 11.6 percent to 11.4 percent, merely a 0.2 percent decline. However, Samsung's share fell by 1.2 percent, from 23.5 percent to 22.3 percent.
By region, Samsung's share of the U.S. smartphone market shrank 10 percent month-on-month to reach 27 percent in August, while the figure for the Chinese market was 10 percent in August, down 4 percent from the previous month. In particular, the Korean Android phone maker had maintained the top position in the Chinese market until June, but Samsung was ousted by Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi Tech to become the #4 smartphone vendor in China in August.
- See more at: Crisis in China: Samsung Fell to #4 Smartphone Maker in China in August | BusinessKorea
Samsung Fell to #4 Smartphone Maker in China in August
samsung-logo.png
25 SEPTEMBER 2014
Chinese smartphone vendors are increasing their global market share at an alarming rate.
According to sources in the financial investment industry on Sept. 24, four Chinese companies – Lenovo, Huawei, Xiaomi Tech, and ZTE – made up 25 percent of the global smartphone market in August
, a 12 percent year-on-year gain, which is the highest-ever result.In particular, the upward trend of Lenovo's market share was noticeable. The Chinese Android phone manufacturer has maintained the third spot by steadily increasing its share with 7.5 percent in June, 8.0 percent in July, and 9.2 percent in August.
On the other hand, the position of Samsung Electronics and Apple, the two prominent smartphone makers, weakened owing to Chinese firms' good performances. Last month, Samsung and Apple comprised only 33.7 percent of the market with Samsung at 22.3 percent and Apple at 11.4 percent. The combined market share of the two companies was 39.9 percent in June, hovering below 40 percent for the first time in 21 months. Since then, the number has further decreased, with 35.1 percent in July and 33.7 percent in August.
Stock market analysts believe that Samsung has been losing its competitiveness more seriously than Apple. Between July and August, Apple's share of the global smartphone market dipped from 11.6 percent to 11.4 percent, merely a 0.2 percent decline. However, Samsung's share fell by 1.2 percent, from 23.5 percent to 22.3 percent.
By region, Samsung's share of the U.S. smartphone market shrank 10 percent month-on-month to reach 27 percent in August, while the figure for the Chinese market was 10 percent in August, down 4 percent from the previous month. In particular, the Korean Android phone maker had maintained the top position in the Chinese market until June, but Samsung was ousted by Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi Tech to become the #4 smartphone vendor in China in August.
- See more at: Crisis in China: Samsung Fell to #4 Smartphone Maker in China in August | BusinessKorea
cirr
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Taiwan and Mainland China, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.
TSMC Delivers First Fully Functional 16FinFET Networking Processor
Published: Sept 25, 2014 3:00 a.m. ET
HSINCHU, Taiwan, R.O.C., Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TSMC (twse:2330)TSM, +0.15% today announced that its collaboration with HiSilicon Technologies Co, Ltd. has successfully produced the foundry segment's first fully functional ARM-based networking processor withFinFET technology. This milestone is a strong testimonial to deep collaboration between the two companies and TSMC's commitment to providing industry-leading technology to meet the increasing customer demand for the next generation of high-performance, energy-efficient devices.
TSMC's 16FinFET process promises impressive speed and power improvements as well as leakage reduction. All of these advantages overcome challenges that have become critical barriers to further scaling of advanced SoC technology. It has twice the gate density of TSMC's 28HPM process, and operates more than 40% faster at the same total power, or reduces total power over 60% at the same speed.
"Our FinFET R&D goes back over a decade and we are pleased to see the tremendous efforts resulted in this achievement," said TSMC President and Co-CEO, Dr. Mark Liu. "We are confident in our abilities to maximize the technology's capabilities and bring results that match our long track record of foundry leadership in advanced technology nodes."
TSMC's 16FinFET has entered risk production with excellent yields after completing all reliability qualifications in November 2013. This paves the way for TSMC and customers to engage in more future product tape-outs, pilot activities and early sampling.
Built on TSMC's 16FinFET process, HiSilicon's new processor enables a significant leap in performance and power optimization supporting high-end networking applications. By leveraging TSMC's production-proven heterogeneous CoWoS® (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) 3D IC packaging process, HiSilicon integrates its 16-nanometer logic chips with a 28-nanometer I/O chip for a cost-effective system solution.
"We are delighted to see TSMC's FinFET technology and CoWoS®solution successfully bringing our innovative designs to working silicon," said HiSilicon President Teresa He."This industry's first 32-core ARM Cortex-A57 processor we developed for next-generation wireless communications and routers is based on the ARMv8 architecture with processing speeds of up to 2.6GHz. This networking processor's performance increases by three fold compared with its previous generation. Such a highly competitive product can support virtualization, SDN and NFV applications for next-generation base stations, routers and other networking equipment, and meet our time-to-market goals."
About TSMCTSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry segment's largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company's owned capacity in 2014 is expected to be about 8 million (12-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFABTM facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC's wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 28nm and 20nm production capabilities. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information please visithttp://www.tsmc.com.
TSMC Delivers First Fully Functional 16FinFET Networking Processor
Published: Sept 25, 2014 3:00 a.m. ET
HSINCHU, Taiwan, R.O.C., Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TSMC (twse:2330)TSM, +0.15% today announced that its collaboration with HiSilicon Technologies Co, Ltd. has successfully produced the foundry segment's first fully functional ARM-based networking processor withFinFET technology. This milestone is a strong testimonial to deep collaboration between the two companies and TSMC's commitment to providing industry-leading technology to meet the increasing customer demand for the next generation of high-performance, energy-efficient devices.
TSMC's 16FinFET process promises impressive speed and power improvements as well as leakage reduction. All of these advantages overcome challenges that have become critical barriers to further scaling of advanced SoC technology. It has twice the gate density of TSMC's 28HPM process, and operates more than 40% faster at the same total power, or reduces total power over 60% at the same speed.
"Our FinFET R&D goes back over a decade and we are pleased to see the tremendous efforts resulted in this achievement," said TSMC President and Co-CEO, Dr. Mark Liu. "We are confident in our abilities to maximize the technology's capabilities and bring results that match our long track record of foundry leadership in advanced technology nodes."
TSMC's 16FinFET has entered risk production with excellent yields after completing all reliability qualifications in November 2013. This paves the way for TSMC and customers to engage in more future product tape-outs, pilot activities and early sampling.
Built on TSMC's 16FinFET process, HiSilicon's new processor enables a significant leap in performance and power optimization supporting high-end networking applications. By leveraging TSMC's production-proven heterogeneous CoWoS® (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) 3D IC packaging process, HiSilicon integrates its 16-nanometer logic chips with a 28-nanometer I/O chip for a cost-effective system solution.
"We are delighted to see TSMC's FinFET technology and CoWoS®solution successfully bringing our innovative designs to working silicon," said HiSilicon President Teresa He."This industry's first 32-core ARM Cortex-A57 processor we developed for next-generation wireless communications and routers is based on the ARMv8 architecture with processing speeds of up to 2.6GHz. This networking processor's performance increases by three fold compared with its previous generation. Such a highly competitive product can support virtualization, SDN and NFV applications for next-generation base stations, routers and other networking equipment, and meet our time-to-market goals."
About TSMCTSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry segment's largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company's owned capacity in 2014 is expected to be about 8 million (12-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFABTM facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC's wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 28nm and 20nm production capabilities. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information please visithttp://www.tsmc.com.
cirr
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China's Huawei looks to invest in France
SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 10:45AM
The founder of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has reportedly announced plans to invest 1.5 billion euros ($A2.1 billion) in France to develop smartphones.
Ren Zhengfei, who met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Paris, said Huawei's plan would be carried out over three years, the online edition of Les Echos business daily reported.
"Our investments will have a significant impact on our global innovation, while boosting France's competitiveness in new technologies and creating jobs for French talent," said Ren, according to the report.
Huawei is looking to increase the number of its European providers and is already working with some major French groups such as STMicro, which provides components for its smartphones, Les Echos said.
The announcement comes on the heels of Huawei's opening on September 12 of a new European research and development centre at the Sophia-Antipolis technology park near Nice in southern France.
In the Paris region, the Chinese in particular want to hire designers so that its smartphones "are recognisable at first sight", said Francois Quentin, president of Huawei France.
In late July, Huawei ranked number three in the world for the sale of smartphones, nearly doubling its sales in a year to 20.3 million phones, grabbing 6.9 per cent of the global market, compared with 11.9 per cent for Apple and 25.2 for Samsung, according to telecoms market research group IDC.
Huawei's turnover in Europe was 5.2 billion euros in 2013 and it expects to employ a total of 13,000 people there by 2017.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 10:45AM
The founder of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has reportedly announced plans to invest 1.5 billion euros ($A2.1 billion) in France to develop smartphones.
Ren Zhengfei, who met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Paris, said Huawei's plan would be carried out over three years, the online edition of Les Echos business daily reported.
"Our investments will have a significant impact on our global innovation, while boosting France's competitiveness in new technologies and creating jobs for French talent," said Ren, according to the report.
Huawei is looking to increase the number of its European providers and is already working with some major French groups such as STMicro, which provides components for its smartphones, Les Echos said.
The announcement comes on the heels of Huawei's opening on September 12 of a new European research and development centre at the Sophia-Antipolis technology park near Nice in southern France.
In the Paris region, the Chinese in particular want to hire designers so that its smartphones "are recognisable at first sight", said Francois Quentin, president of Huawei France.
In late July, Huawei ranked number three in the world for the sale of smartphones, nearly doubling its sales in a year to 20.3 million phones, grabbing 6.9 per cent of the global market, compared with 11.9 per cent for Apple and 25.2 for Samsung, according to telecoms market research group IDC.
Huawei's turnover in Europe was 5.2 billion euros in 2013 and it expects to employ a total of 13,000 people there by 2017.
TaiShang
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LOL. I guess there is even more to it:
Apple accused of banning media covering ‘Bendgate’ from official events
Still from YouTube video/Unbox Therapy
Apple CEO Tim Cook is coming under attack from a Germany tech magazine after the publication said it was told it would no longer be receiving test products or attending official Apple events as a result of a recent report.
According to Computer Bild editor-in-chief Axel Telzerow, his magazine received a phone call from a German Apple representative recently a few hours after publishing a video clip showing that the company’s new mobile device, the iPhone 6, can be bent with human hands if subjected to the proper pressure. Soon the video started to go viral, and apparently attracted the attention from some folks affiliated with Apple who weren’t all too thrilled.
“We were shocked about how easy it was to bend the device. And so were around 200.000 viewers who watched the video up until now,” Telzerow wrote in an open letter to Cook published by his magazine this week. “We can imagine that you and your colleagues must have been shocked, too. This might have been the reason why we got a call from one of your German colleagues the next morning. He was upset, and it was a rather short conversation.”
“From now on,” Telzerow recalled being told, “you won’t get any devices for testing purposes and you will not be invited to Apple events in the future.”gate
Now on the heels of the “Bendgate” scandal that made waves as a result of Computer Bild’s reporting, Apple is facing further backlash over the German rep’s alleged behavior.
“Is this really how your company wants to deal with media that provide your customers with profound tests of your products?” Telzerow wrote to Apple’s top dog. “Do you really think that a withdrawal of Apple’s love and affection could have an intimidating effect on us? Luckily we do not have to rely on devices that Apple provides us with. Luckily, a lot of readers are willing to pay money for our magazine to keep us independent. So we are able to buy devices to do our tests anyway. Even devices of manufacturers that seem to fear Computer Bild’s independent judgment.”
“We congratulate you to your fine new generation of iPhones, even if one of them has a minor weakness with its casing,” Telzerow wrote. “But we are deeply disappointed about the lack of respect of your company.”
According to some, Computer Bild isn’t being treated all that differently compared to other critical outlets either. The 9to5Mac website was quick to evoke a recent article by Mark Gurman in which he said “controlling the press” was a key strategy for Apple.
“Apple’s PR department presents a cool, measured public-facing image: it only responds to press inquiries when it wants to, doesn’t offer quotes unless they’ll be reprinted without criticism, and responds directly only when it determines that something needs to be said by ‘Apple’ rather than ‘sources familiar with the matter.’ You could picture Apple’s PR strategy as the work of a wise, wealthy, and not particularly friendly queen – one always too busy to be bothered, until for some reason, she’s not,” Gurman wrote.
Consumer Reports said recently that Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus, released last month, can be permanently bent if around 90 pounds of pressure is applied to it. Last week, Apple said that it was “extremely rare” to have phones become misshaped on accident, and that only nine customers had filed complaints as of September 25.
If #bandgate was not enough...
Apple has almost immediately withdrawn its first update of iOS 8, the company’s new mobile operating system released just a week ago following the introduction of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus earlier this month.
The operating system has been plagued with a host of problems, including weak battery life and problems with wireless connection.
Wednesday’s update to iOS 8 also affected how some devices connect to mobile networks. Problems with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor have been reported, as well.
The move is believed to be the first time Apple has retracted a software update from its App Store.
“We have received reports of an issue with the iOS 8.0.1 update,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can. In the meantime we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update.”
Hundreds of users took to Twitter to report they could not get a mobile signal upon downloading the update, as their iPhones were left in “searching” mode or offering a “no signal” message, according to technology website ZDNet.
The bugs could be solved by taking up the original version of iOS 8, ZDNet reported, offering a guideto negating the update.
The iOS 8 update was billed as a fix for bugs that came with HealthKit apps, which is planned to be integrated with the upcoming. Apple Watch.
The latest mishap comes on the heels of another scandal that plagued Apple's iPhone 6 Plus smartphone. 'Bendgate,' as the internet dubbed it right away, came from reports that the company's biggest phone to date is bending while in customers' pockets. Users have taken to social media, using the hashtag #bendgate, to denounce the large handset’s structural
deficiency.
‘Bendgate’ has also been promoted by Apple rivals like Samsung and LG, using the moment to feature their own products.
What A Girl Wants @Girlzwantz
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Real phones have curves #bendgate
Kas Thomas @kasthomas
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It's official, #bendghazi is a successful hashtag.
Phone 6+ News @r_x_g
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just sat on my iphone ;( #bendgate
terranMarine
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bendgate? bad publicity is still publicity for Apple
of all the gates, i like the nipple gate the best
of all the gates, i like the nipple gate the best
劉天兆
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Well, if you want to know the highest price Chinese mobile phone with the highest technological standards, then I recommend you a from Chinese Zhuhai 'Meizu MX4' details.and you can Google it, this mobile phone got a predetermined amount of more than ten million in less than a month. By the way, this mobile phone is like the new IPHONE, but it is worth noting that he released a lot of time earlier than IPHONE. So, please don't say we copy, thank you. If you can buy, it will be you used the best mobile phone.
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Huawei Goes Large
Joe Lipscombe | 01-10-2014, 05:55 AM | Asia-Pacific |
AFP The Chinese IT vendor is aiming for global supremacy in the enterprise space
On a warm morning in Shanghai, crowds are beginning to gather around the Expo Centre situated along the Huangpu River, much like they did in 2010 when the city hosted the World Fair. This time however, the 10,000 strong crowd has come to hear a homegrown telco giant announce something quite significant – but as of yet, nobody knows what.
Huawei is held close to the hearts of many in China. It’s a global success story from a telecoms perspective. In 2012, it leapfrogged Ericsson as the number one telecoms equipment maker in the world, having only begun its global expansion in 1997. The company itself was founded just 10 years earlier. By comparison, Ericsson has been around since 1876.
Now, the group is split into three business units: consumer, enterprise, and its original carrier division. Last year, the Shenzhen-based company reported group revenues of $39.3 billion, an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase. The carrier division accounted for a whopping $27.4 billion of this figure, while the consumer business contributed $9.4 billion and its enterprise operation just $2.5 billion.
While the carrier division’s results were impressive, it only saw 4 percent growth year-on-year, whereas the enterprise arm of the company witnessed a massive 32.4 percent increase from the previous year — and this is why 10,000 people had converged on Shanghai’s Expo Centre and a further 13,000 had tuned in online. Huawei’s rotating CEO, Eric Xu, took no time in declaring the company was aiming for global domination of the enterprise space.
“We want to be the world’s leading IT company,” he stated during his keynote. His plan starts with Huawei increasing the sales of its server and storage equipment by a factor of ten in the next five years.
Given Huawei only launched its enterprise unit in 2011, Xu’s statement could be met with scepticism. Still, the company knows a thing or two about making up ground quickly. In its home country, it tackled Lenovo and ZTE in both the consumer space and the carrier space. Currently, it sits above Lenovo in terms of smartphone shipments with 20.1 million units in Q2 this year, an increase of nearly 10 million from 11.1 million in the same quarter the year before, according to data compiled by tech analyst IDC.
By comparison, Lenovo shipped 15.8 million handsets, up from 11.3 million in Q2, 2013. Relative newcomer Xiaomi sold 15.1 million handsets in Q2, up from 4.1 million a year before.
Huawei’s rapid emergence as a global brand has been impressive. However, one of its key challenges has been maintaining its brand heritage while servicing its customers at a local level.
In an interview in 2011, shortly after the launch of its enterprise division, David He, president of marketing for the division at the time, stated that Huawei aimed to be the number one global end-to-end IT solutions provider by 2015, and that it wanted to achieve this without compromising on culture. “We want to do that by staying true to Huawei principles,” he said in an interview. “We don’t want to be just another global provider.”
More recently, He told reporters he expected the enterprise division to contribute up to 20 percent of the group’s overall revenues by 2015. While its rate of expansion has been impressive, it isn’t likely to hit that target by next year — certainly not without changing its approach to key markets.
“Huawei recognises that in order to be successful in certain markets it has to do business the way those markets do business, not the way China does business,” says Sufian Bweik, VP of the company’s UAE operations.
An American-Palestinian fluent in Arabic and English, Bweik is a former Brocade exec who has been charged with expanding Huawei’s business in the Emirates. He says the company recognises the importance of hiring locally to achieve this. “This company won’t be successful if it has one strict culture,” he says. Bweik’s appointment and that of other non-Chinese execs in key leadership positions demonstrates Huawei’s shifting strategy, which can be traced back to the late-2000s, when the company hired one man who was to change Huawei’s entire outlook on global branding and marketing.
Ron Raffensperger sticks out like a sore thumb in Shanghai. The American sits alone at a table in one of the many conference rooms dotted throughout the Expo Centre. “I was working for a company in Silicon Valley [California, USA] owned by IBM, and Huawei was one of the channel partners, so I was spending a lot of time dealing with them,” Raffensperger says. After one particular meeting with Huawei execs, Raffensperger decided he would set up a consultancy offering marketing services to Chinese firms.
“A lot of Chinese companies knew nothing about marketing. Some would say “why would we want to do marketing, and do we have to pay you?”
Huawei was one of the few companies that bought into Raffensperger’s vision but decided he would be better off working for them directly from Shenzhen.
By 2011, and just a few years after Raffensperger’s move to China, Huawei had announced its aim of being the world’s number one end-to-end IT solutions company, and with a strong background in enterprise IT and a “deep technical knowledge” of the products, Raffensperger decided to move into that area and has been driving the expansion ever since. He’s currently employed as chief technology officer for IT Solutions Sales.
“We run the place like a start-up because we’re relatively new to the enterprise space,” says Raffensperger.
Last month, Huawei announced a partnership with one of India’s largest IT developers, Infosys, to boost its cloud computing offerings. Infosys, under the leadership of recently appointed SAP veteran Vishal Sikka, is increasing its investment in cloud and smartphone apps and has stated its belief that Huawei’s cloud infrastructure is the ideal platform with which to achieve that. “Sure, we’re late to classical enterprise, but the rise of other technologies allows us to come in at exactly the right time,” Raffensperger says.
Bringing a dose of reality to Huawei’s global ambitions has been another challenge for the American.
“It’s a very cultural thing for a Chinese company to say we want to be number one in the world. It was my job early on to understand that culture and control their ambition,” he says.
As things stand, the Americas are still proving Huawei’s toughest international markets to crack, with just 13 percent of revenues coming from the region. Comparatively, China, Europe and Asia Pacific account for 35 percent, 36 percent and 16 percent of its business respectively.
While Huawei has achieved impressive growth in the enterprise arena, it must develop its product offering to rival that of Cisco, IBM and HP, before it can realistically aim to become the world’s number one IT vendor.
Joe Lipscombe | 01-10-2014, 05:55 AM | Asia-Pacific |
AFP The Chinese IT vendor is aiming for global supremacy in the enterprise space
On a warm morning in Shanghai, crowds are beginning to gather around the Expo Centre situated along the Huangpu River, much like they did in 2010 when the city hosted the World Fair. This time however, the 10,000 strong crowd has come to hear a homegrown telco giant announce something quite significant – but as of yet, nobody knows what.
Huawei is held close to the hearts of many in China. It’s a global success story from a telecoms perspective. In 2012, it leapfrogged Ericsson as the number one telecoms equipment maker in the world, having only begun its global expansion in 1997. The company itself was founded just 10 years earlier. By comparison, Ericsson has been around since 1876.
Now, the group is split into three business units: consumer, enterprise, and its original carrier division. Last year, the Shenzhen-based company reported group revenues of $39.3 billion, an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase. The carrier division accounted for a whopping $27.4 billion of this figure, while the consumer business contributed $9.4 billion and its enterprise operation just $2.5 billion.
While the carrier division’s results were impressive, it only saw 4 percent growth year-on-year, whereas the enterprise arm of the company witnessed a massive 32.4 percent increase from the previous year — and this is why 10,000 people had converged on Shanghai’s Expo Centre and a further 13,000 had tuned in online. Huawei’s rotating CEO, Eric Xu, took no time in declaring the company was aiming for global domination of the enterprise space.
“We want to be the world’s leading IT company,” he stated during his keynote. His plan starts with Huawei increasing the sales of its server and storage equipment by a factor of ten in the next five years.
Given Huawei only launched its enterprise unit in 2011, Xu’s statement could be met with scepticism. Still, the company knows a thing or two about making up ground quickly. In its home country, it tackled Lenovo and ZTE in both the consumer space and the carrier space. Currently, it sits above Lenovo in terms of smartphone shipments with 20.1 million units in Q2 this year, an increase of nearly 10 million from 11.1 million in the same quarter the year before, according to data compiled by tech analyst IDC.
By comparison, Lenovo shipped 15.8 million handsets, up from 11.3 million in Q2, 2013. Relative newcomer Xiaomi sold 15.1 million handsets in Q2, up from 4.1 million a year before.
Huawei’s rapid emergence as a global brand has been impressive. However, one of its key challenges has been maintaining its brand heritage while servicing its customers at a local level.
In an interview in 2011, shortly after the launch of its enterprise division, David He, president of marketing for the division at the time, stated that Huawei aimed to be the number one global end-to-end IT solutions provider by 2015, and that it wanted to achieve this without compromising on culture. “We want to do that by staying true to Huawei principles,” he said in an interview. “We don’t want to be just another global provider.”
More recently, He told reporters he expected the enterprise division to contribute up to 20 percent of the group’s overall revenues by 2015. While its rate of expansion has been impressive, it isn’t likely to hit that target by next year — certainly not without changing its approach to key markets.
“Huawei recognises that in order to be successful in certain markets it has to do business the way those markets do business, not the way China does business,” says Sufian Bweik, VP of the company’s UAE operations.
An American-Palestinian fluent in Arabic and English, Bweik is a former Brocade exec who has been charged with expanding Huawei’s business in the Emirates. He says the company recognises the importance of hiring locally to achieve this. “This company won’t be successful if it has one strict culture,” he says. Bweik’s appointment and that of other non-Chinese execs in key leadership positions demonstrates Huawei’s shifting strategy, which can be traced back to the late-2000s, when the company hired one man who was to change Huawei’s entire outlook on global branding and marketing.
Ron Raffensperger sticks out like a sore thumb in Shanghai. The American sits alone at a table in one of the many conference rooms dotted throughout the Expo Centre. “I was working for a company in Silicon Valley [California, USA] owned by IBM, and Huawei was one of the channel partners, so I was spending a lot of time dealing with them,” Raffensperger says. After one particular meeting with Huawei execs, Raffensperger decided he would set up a consultancy offering marketing services to Chinese firms.
“A lot of Chinese companies knew nothing about marketing. Some would say “why would we want to do marketing, and do we have to pay you?”
Huawei was one of the few companies that bought into Raffensperger’s vision but decided he would be better off working for them directly from Shenzhen.
By 2011, and just a few years after Raffensperger’s move to China, Huawei had announced its aim of being the world’s number one end-to-end IT solutions company, and with a strong background in enterprise IT and a “deep technical knowledge” of the products, Raffensperger decided to move into that area and has been driving the expansion ever since. He’s currently employed as chief technology officer for IT Solutions Sales.
“We run the place like a start-up because we’re relatively new to the enterprise space,” says Raffensperger.
Last month, Huawei announced a partnership with one of India’s largest IT developers, Infosys, to boost its cloud computing offerings. Infosys, under the leadership of recently appointed SAP veteran Vishal Sikka, is increasing its investment in cloud and smartphone apps and has stated its belief that Huawei’s cloud infrastructure is the ideal platform with which to achieve that. “Sure, we’re late to classical enterprise, but the rise of other technologies allows us to come in at exactly the right time,” Raffensperger says.
Bringing a dose of reality to Huawei’s global ambitions has been another challenge for the American.
“It’s a very cultural thing for a Chinese company to say we want to be number one in the world. It was my job early on to understand that culture and control their ambition,” he says.
As things stand, the Americas are still proving Huawei’s toughest international markets to crack, with just 13 percent of revenues coming from the region. Comparatively, China, Europe and Asia Pacific account for 35 percent, 36 percent and 16 percent of its business respectively.
While Huawei has achieved impressive growth in the enterprise arena, it must develop its product offering to rival that of Cisco, IBM and HP, before it can realistically aim to become the world’s number one IT vendor.
cirr
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CITY INTERVIEW: Ambitious Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is playing it smart
By PETER CAMPBELL FOR THE DAILY MAIL IN SHENZHEN, CHINA
PUBLISHED: 16:03 EST, 1 October 2014 | UPDATED: 16:03 EST, 1 October 2014
Shao Yang is the public face of a company that almost no-one in Britain has ever heard of.（shows how ignorant these westerners can be and they are quite proud of the fact！）
Despite its growing presence not many people in the UK know the brand of ‘Huawei’ - and fewer still know how to pronounce it. (The answer is Hoo-wah-way) But the Chinese telecoms giant is taking the mobile world by storm.
Five years ago it had never made a single handset. This year, however, it expects to ship 90 million phones - a staggering trajectory over the space of half a decade.
Well connected: Five years ago Huawei had never made a single handset. This year, however, it expects to ship 90 million phones - a staggering trajectory over the space of half a decade
It has come from nowhere to become the third-largest maker of smartphones in the world behind Apple and Samsung.
But for Yang, the deputy chief of its devices arm and the face of the company’s mobile business, bronze is not good enough. He wants gold.
‘This is a competition,’ he says. ‘It’s about how you meet consumer dreams.’
It has a track record of throwing its weight behind a project and growing market share.
He even admits it picked EE in Britain because the network provider was the ‘most aggressive’.
‘In 1998 when I joined the company we said we were going to be number one in wireless technology,’
Yang says, when we meet at the company’s vast headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
‘At the time there were seven rivals that were bigger than us. Now we are number one.’
He adds: ‘In mobile we said in the next five years we will be the top three. That was in 2010.’
But it will take a huge leap for the company to knock Apple’s 15 per cent or Samsung’s 30 per cent share（
no more，25% at best）of the market.
Possibly not surprisingly for a company founded by a former Red Army officer, Huawei has a battle plan - and it is to do with making phone calls and connecting to the internet.
‘Samsung is the best at hardware, Apple is the best at software, Huawei is the best at connecting to the network.’
The comparison is not entirely surprising for a company that grew on the back of building and flogging telecoms infrastructure equipment around the world.
But with Samsung’s share in decline, the group has set its sights not on the South Korean firm, but on its fierce rival from the US.
‘Apple is still the best smartphone in the world.
‘But Apple doesn’t listen to the consumer. It makes it uncomfortable to be the consumer.’
He wants to pull out all the stops to create phones that allow people to use them freely.
Its latest, the Ascend Mate 7, comes with a fingerprint scanner on the back that can unlock the phone in several different modes depending on which digit is used.
Huawei now has five different ranges of phone, including one for just £60. But even with its strategy in place, the group has the branding stacked heavily against it.
Why not ditch the complicated name and launch a brand consumers can get their tongues around?
‘We meet this kind of question always,’ says Yang, with a tone of voice that suggests he is sympathetic to the objection.
When it first looked at selling to ordinary customers, ‘we thought we needed to totally change the name’.
But after studying the world’s top 100 brands, presumably to see which ones could be picked off and replaced by his own, Yang realised that none of them also served businesses.
To keep its infrastructure business while becoming a consumer giant, Huawei would have to break new ground.
‘I remember [O2 owner] Telefonica saying to me we can have the best product, but we need to build our brand.’ He says this led to a deep debate internally at the company.
‘It will only work if it is a very strong root, if you start both from the same principle. If the root is strong enough then both trees can grow from it.’
The result was a halfway house - and one of the very rare occasions on which the group compromised.
Its flagship phone range is the Ascend ‘which English people can pronounce’, he says, holding up his own shiny new device. ‘Maybe it’s hard for people to pronounce or remember Huawei.’
Britain, where it also occupies third place in the market, is key to its success internationally, he says.
‘The UK is a heavily competed market. It is the second most difficult market in Europe after France.
But it is very important and most of the brands use the UK as a key market.
‘There is a lot of money invested. If you look at the marketing costs in the UK they are very high, higher than in other countries.’
He says Huawei is ‘not so rich’.
‘It is hard to invest a lot.’
So picking its ‘partner’ to promote it in the UK was key.
‘Currently we use 4G partner Everything Everywhere.’ Clearly the rebranding of the Orange and T-Mobile owner to ‘EE’ has not proved memorable.
But with the growth of Huawei’s brand comes an increasing awareness of past troubles dug up in its less visible, more secretive corporate business.
In 2012 the US Senate all but barred it from public work after accusing the group of allowing the Chinese state to infiltrate its systems and snoop around the world.
Given that Huawei’s kit is in almost every country - including Britain’s superfast broadband network, countless offices and a host of Government departments - the implications of the accusations are difficult to exaggerate.
It denied the allegations and demanded evidence. None has yet appeared in the public domain. But the storm led to the group quietly redoubling its efforts to increase security.
Despite being founded by a former Red Army officer, and spending the first decade of its life in the 1980s and 1990s doing business exclusively with the Chinese state, Huawei maintains that it has no formal link to the government of the People’s Republic.
It is owned by its employees, making it one of the largest private companies in the country.
Raising the issue of the spying claims leads to Yang losing his bounce for the first time in our meeting.
He looks to his PR attendant, who leans over and whispers frantically in his ear. It is clear he had only expected us to talk about phones and the company’s growth rate.
‘The US market is,’ he begins, before pausing and starting again. ‘The US market has always been a very important part of our business.’
It accounts for around 5 per cent of smartphone sales.
‘The market is not related to that kind of report,’ he insists. But since the ‘report’ - a senior Senate committee paper on the back of an FBI investigation - Huawei has conversely become less reticent about splashing its name across North America.
‘This is a time of change in the US market. We use operator brands in the US, such as T-Mobile. But now is the time we can really use the Huawei brand,’ he says.
Three years ago only one-fifth of its phones sold in the States bore the Chinese giant’s branding. Now the figure is 95 per cent.
The room where we meet is large, with place names waiting for us facing across the boardroom table.
Yang, sitting directly opposite me, can survey the company’s vast campus where one-third of its 150,000 staff are employed through the large windows behind me.
My view is of water bottles arranged in a neat pyramid formation on a low shelf just behind Yang’s head.
As he pushes towards his goal of global smartphone domination, Yang will hope that his ducks line up just as neatly.
By PETER CAMPBELL FOR THE DAILY MAIL IN SHENZHEN, CHINA
PUBLISHED: 16:03 EST, 1 October 2014 | UPDATED: 16:03 EST, 1 October 2014
Shao Yang is the public face of a company that almost no-one in Britain has ever heard of.（shows how ignorant these westerners can be and they are quite proud of the fact！）
Despite its growing presence not many people in the UK know the brand of ‘Huawei’ - and fewer still know how to pronounce it. (The answer is Hoo-wah-way) But the Chinese telecoms giant is taking the mobile world by storm.
Five years ago it had never made a single handset. This year, however, it expects to ship 90 million phones - a staggering trajectory over the space of half a decade.
Well connected: Five years ago Huawei had never made a single handset. This year, however, it expects to ship 90 million phones - a staggering trajectory over the space of half a decade
It has come from nowhere to become the third-largest maker of smartphones in the world behind Apple and Samsung.
But for Yang, the deputy chief of its devices arm and the face of the company’s mobile business, bronze is not good enough. He wants gold.
‘This is a competition,’ he says. ‘It’s about how you meet consumer dreams.’
It has a track record of throwing its weight behind a project and growing market share.
He even admits it picked EE in Britain because the network provider was the ‘most aggressive’.
‘In 1998 when I joined the company we said we were going to be number one in wireless technology,’
Yang says, when we meet at the company’s vast headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
‘At the time there were seven rivals that were bigger than us. Now we are number one.’
He adds: ‘In mobile we said in the next five years we will be the top three. That was in 2010.
’But it will take a huge leap for the company to knock Apple’s 15 per cent or Samsung’s 30 per cent share（
no more，25% at best）of the market.Possibly not surprisingly for a company founded by a former Red Army officer, Huawei has a battle plan - and it is to do with making phone calls and connecting to the internet.
‘Samsung is the best at hardware, Apple is the best at software, Huawei is the best at connecting to the network.’
The comparison is not entirely surprising for a company that grew on the back of building and flogging telecoms infrastructure equipment around the world.
But with Samsung’s share in decline, the group has set its sights not on the South Korean firm, but on its fierce rival from the US.
‘Apple is still the best smartphone in the world.
‘But Apple doesn’t listen to the consumer. It makes it uncomfortable to be the consumer.’
He wants to pull out all the stops to create phones that allow people to use them freely.
Its latest, the Ascend Mate 7, comes with a fingerprint scanner on the back that can unlock the phone in several different modes depending on which digit is used.
Huawei now has five different ranges of phone, including one for just £60. But even with its strategy in place, the group has the branding stacked heavily against it.
Why not ditch the complicated name and launch a brand consumers can get their tongues around?
‘We meet this kind of question always,’ says Yang, with a tone of voice that suggests he is sympathetic to the objection.
When it first looked at selling to ordinary customers, ‘we thought we needed to totally change the name’.
But after studying the world’s top 100 brands, presumably to see which ones could be picked off and replaced by his own, Yang realised that none of them also served businesses.
To keep its infrastructure business while becoming a consumer giant, Huawei would have to break new ground.
‘I remember [O2 owner] Telefonica saying to me we can have the best product, but we need to build our brand.’ He says this led to a deep debate internally at the company.
‘It will only work if it is a very strong root, if you start both from the same principle. If the root is strong enough then both trees can grow from it.’
The result was a halfway house - and one of the very rare occasions on which the group compromised.
Its flagship phone range is the Ascend ‘which English people can pronounce’, he says, holding up his own shiny new device. ‘Maybe it’s hard for people to pronounce or remember Huawei.’
Britain, where it also occupies third place in the market, is key to its success internationally, he says.
‘The UK is a heavily competed market. It is the second most difficult market in Europe after France.
But it is very important and most of the brands use the UK as a key market.
‘There is a lot of money invested. If you look at the marketing costs in the UK they are very high, higher than in other countries.’
He says Huawei is ‘not so rich’.
‘It is hard to invest a lot.’
So picking its ‘partner’ to promote it in the UK was key.
‘Currently we use 4G partner Everything Everywhere.’ Clearly the rebranding of the Orange and T-Mobile owner to ‘EE’ has not proved memorable.
But with the growth of Huawei’s brand comes an increasing awareness of past troubles dug up in its less visible, more secretive corporate business.
In 2012 the US Senate all but barred it from public work after accusing the group of allowing the Chinese state to infiltrate its systems and snoop around the world.
Given that Huawei’s kit is in almost every country - including Britain’s superfast broadband network, countless offices and a host of Government departments - the implications of the accusations are difficult to exaggerate.
It denied the allegations and demanded evidence. None has yet appeared in the public domain. But the storm led to the group quietly redoubling its efforts to increase security.
Despite being founded by a former Red Army officer, and spending the first decade of its life in the 1980s and 1990s doing business exclusively with the Chinese state, Huawei maintains that it has no formal link to the government of the People’s Republic.
It is owned by its employees, making it one of the largest private companies in the country.
Raising the issue of the spying claims leads to Yang losing his bounce for the first time in our meeting.
He looks to his PR attendant, who leans over and whispers frantically in his ear. It is clear he had only expected us to talk about phones and the company’s growth rate.
‘The US market is,’ he begins, before pausing and starting again. ‘The US market has always been a very important part of our business.’
It accounts for around 5 per cent of smartphone sales.
‘The market is not related to that kind of report,’ he insists. But since the ‘report’ - a senior Senate committee paper on the back of an FBI investigation - Huawei has conversely become less reticent about splashing its name across North America.
‘This is a time of change in the US market. We use operator brands in the US, such as T-Mobile. But now is the time we can really use the Huawei brand,’ he says.
Three years ago only one-fifth of its phones sold in the States bore the Chinese giant’s branding. Now the figure is 95 per cent.
The room where we meet is large, with place names waiting for us facing across the boardroom table.
Yang, sitting directly opposite me, can survey the company’s vast campus where one-third of its 150,000 staff are employed through the large windows behind me.
My view is of water bottles arranged in a neat pyramid formation on a low shelf just behind Yang’s head.
As he pushes towards his goal of global smartphone domination, Yang will hope that his ducks line up just as neatly.
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