Huawei attempts to be recognized as a brand of cell phone

The Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei has the ambition to become a global brand known also in the production of mobile phones, with help, mainly from the sale of high-quality appliances, rather than cheaper products. Of the $ 35.4 billion that the Group won last year, 74% were business of telecommunication networks, 22% from the sale of handsets and 4% with services and technology consulting firms.
The strategy now is to get each of the divisions represent one third of the businesses within five to ten years. To achieve the goal, the company hopes to impose in the marketplace through innovation, said to the Vice President of the international press Department of Huawei, Roland Sladek.
Huawei plans coincide with accusations made in November by Congress of the United States, that the company's equipment would be used for Chinese ciberespionagem. This virtually blocked much of its business in the largest market for information technology in the world. The company denies the accusations.
The Executive, however, said that it is possible to expand even amid the global crisis. "The crisis is like a test, are the best who survive," he said. The group plans to double the number of employees in Europe, where he faces a very different environment from that of the USA. In the plans are the creation of a research center of mobile phones in Finland, while Finnish Nokia, former global leader, resigns 3.7 thousand employees.
In the world, the Chinese group is the second largest in telecommunications network infrastructure, behind only Sweden's Ericsson. In the area of mobile, is the third, after Samsung and Apple. But the ambition is to position itself better than that. Its production began eight years ago, but as mark ' white ', aimed at operators such as Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and others. Only two years ago launched products with its own brand, using, for example, the Google Android operating system.
Analysts agree that recent releases of Chinese group show that their ability to innovate has been superior to that of its two main competitors. In January, Huawei has launched in Las Vegas and in China the Ascend Kill, or ' phablet ', a combination of smartphone with tablet.
Last month in Barcelona, it was the turn of Ascend P2, considered the fastest phone in the world. With fourth generation technology, lets you download speed of 150 megabits per second (Mbps), while competitors are still limited to 100 Mbps, for example, according to Huawei.
In 2012, the Group boarded 127 million sets of different models for the international market.
'' What is missing is the recognition, "said Sladek. "The challenge from Huawei is imposing its brand." To correct this situation, the Group launched this year a broad international marketing campaign. The millionaire football team sponsorship and Rugby is also on the radar, depending on the target market.
Ambitious plans are also in the management, consulting and technological services to companies, which represent a global business estimated at between $ 1 trillion and $ 2 trillion, according to the Director of Huawei. "At the moment, we have only a negligible slice," he said.
The company also plans a more aggressive performance in cloud computing, data storage and other services in partnership with operators, including in Brazil. In this sense, Sladek said that have already been signed important long-term contracts to provide services and maintenance, and not just to install equipment.
"Innovation will continue to be the key word," said the Executive. "We want to make more and more and simplify the techniques." CITES as an example the SingleRAN technology (Radio Access network), which allows multiple mobile communication standards on the same network, such as 2 g and 3 g without having to replace the equipment.
The direction of Huawei hopes to differentiate from competitors with the help of their 27 thousand patents, equivalent to 20% of which is held by the industry. Another pillar is formed by research and development, which receives investment of $ 5 billion a year and 70 thousand people, a total of 150 thousand workers.
Sladek is surprised when read on the German magazine "Spiegel" Huawei products are typically 30% cheaper than those of competitors. "It's fake, sometimes we are more expensive than competitors because of technological quality," he said. "China is known as a cheap production, but it is not our case. What can make our product cheap is not the price, but product lifespan, energy saving etc. "