When ZTE and Huawei started picking up steam, companies like Nokia, which at the time built phones in Finland, Hungary, Germany, and several other European countries, were scared that they were going to have to say goodbye to their margins due to cheap Chinese labor and components.
Oddly enough, Richard Yu, the Head of Devices at Huawei, says his company can’t afford to compete with companies from his own country. By that I mean he doesn’t want Hauwei to compete in the low end market. Richard instead wants Huawei to become a “first-tier” player. Can the company achieve that goal? I’m going to get a lot of flack for saying this, but I’m going to say no. If you take a look at the Chinese smartphone market, Samsung is numero uno, but it’s the number two player who I find the most interesting: Lenovo. That’s right, the company that’s known for their personal computers is the second largest smartphone vendor in the largest smartphone market on the planet. When they decide to attack Europe and America, and it really is a question of when, not if, then I think they’ll have a shot at becoming the next Samsung.
