Huawei is a Chinese company in the telecommunication industry which has recently started making a name in the international market. It is a well-known brand in China but has till now been perceived in developed markets as mainly a producer of feature phones and low end smart phones. However, Huawei is currently looking to establish itself in the American market by providing quality products to the consumers at competitive prices (as evidenced by the decidedly high end smart phones introduced by the company at the MWC 2012). Many experts are now speculating that Huawei may be the next big manufacturer out of Asia, not unlike HTC.
Earlier, HTC used to manufacture mobile phones that were usually picked up by other companies and sold under their brand. However, a few years ago the company decided to start selling these devices under its own brand and successfully managed to produce quality products that were well differentiated from other manufacturers in the market (their Windows Mobile line is one such example). HTC is credited with manufacturing the first Android flagship device, the Nexus One and the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. It also introduced the first 4G capable smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G, in the United States.
Huawei has been building smartphones and tablets PCs for a while now but they have not marketed their products under their own brand. That is the primary reason that customers are not at all familiar with the brand name of the innovative Chinese company. Many US carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T have been rebranding smartphones built by Huawei and introducing them into the US market. Popular smartphones like the AT&T Fusion and AT&T Impulse 4G were manufactured by Huawei, as are other carrier phones like the T-Mobile Springboard and the Sprint Express. The company also manufactures chips and hardware equipment for 3G/4G mobile technology.
For Huawei to successfully compete with companies like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Nokia it will need to establish a successful brand image in the minds of the consumers. It needs to introduce phone models that offer something different from the other smartphones currently available on the market, which most analysts predict can only be price.
The 2012 Mobile World Congress saw Huawei unveiling some interesting models like the MediaPad 10.1 and the Huawei Ascend D Quad. The latter model is equipped with a 4.5 inch HD display and a powerful quad-core processor chip. If Huawei can produce more such devices that provide high end features to customers at reasonable prices then it may just be the next big thing in smartphone manufacturers, especially in developing markets like India.
