Here in the US, we have Samsung and Apple ads around every corner. The average consumer could probably be fooled into thinking these are the only two brands of smartphones that are worth anything and all of the others are just knock-offs. However, Huawei is making strides in their battle to become top dog. Actually, they have had record profits in 2013, putting them in third place right behind Apple and Samsung. It may be hard to believe if you are in the US, especially since it is very rare if not impossible to find a Huawei device anywhere. However, the US is the defining market for OEMs, instead it seems that emerging markets are the ones that could launch a OEM into the top ranks. At least that’s what Huawei used to get there, competing in the low-end device market. Those low-end device sales backed by the sales of their high-end device the Ascend P6 in established markets, are what did it for Huawei.
In 2013, their sales plan for emerging and established markets, tackling high and low-end devices, gave Huawei a profit growth increase of 34%. However, growth is addicting, and Huawei wants more. They plan on keeping the growth going in 2014, though there is one thing that could prevent them from reaching the heights of Samsung. Emerging markets can only get you so far, and low-end devices are nice to sell, but the one market that stands in Huawei’s way, is the US.
Problem for Huawei, is that for some reason the US government doesn’t want to let go of that espionage thing. Once Huawei makes more of a stance in the US, we could see a worthy Samsung competitor. However Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei also knows how to hold a grudge, he has essentially said they plan to completely pull out of the US market, the second largest market in the world. Surely Zhengfei knows that pulling out of the US completely will essentially turn them into the number three staple in OEM rankings. Speak up and tell us what you think, do you think that Huawei needs the US to overtake Samsung? Or is pulling out of the US a great business move with talks of espionage floating around? Could just picture the Samsung attack ads on Huawei in the US, a spy vs. spy sort of scenario.