You may not instantly recognise the name but Chinese smartphone maker has set their sights on the UK. It has plans to dominate the smartphone market with it’s own brand name android smartphone.
You may ask who is Huawei? It’s not a widely recognised name but there is a good chance that you have already used one of their phones or other piece of electronics such as a wifi receiver.
Huawei is a Chinese telecom giant who makes smartphones for other brands and in particular network operators. Now the company is looking at launching it’s own smartphone range with a motto of “smartphones for all”.
The first android they have released has been named the Blaze and it’s aimed to be priced at under 100 euros. But it’s not just cheap smartphones they plan on offering. Future plans include selling tablets and media pads.
It’s going to be a tough market for Huawei to break into though. While they have been producing phones for the likes of Vodaphone and Everything Everywhere selling directly to the public will be a completely different challenge. Producing smartphones for mobile networks gives you access to their customers and allows phones to be marketed with a lot of subsidies. Offering mobiles directly to the public and outside the safety net of the networks takes the company up against a whole new range of competition.
There are lots of retailers and suppliers of cheap Chinese smartphones that are high quality and excellent value for money. The question is will Huawei be able to break into this highly competitive marketplace. If they choose to sell into the SIM free and factory unlocked marketplace then it will be interesting to see how they choose to differentiate themselves in the market.
If it’s the outright purchaser marketplace they are after rather than the ‘free smartphone’ or subsidised phone market then they need to be offering what the customer wants.
