The chairman of China’s Huawei tells Matt Warman how the company plans to rule the smartphone market and that it can overcome political ‘spying’ fears in the US.
London’s Camden Roundhouse used to house a giant turntable for trains steaming
in to and out of the capital – since it was reinvented as an arts venue, it
therefore made an appropriate site for one of China’s largest companies to
mount its own bid to turn toward a new direction.
Not content with being the maker of much of the infrastructure behind the
internet, Huawei wants to be one of the world’s three biggest mobile phone
brands by the end of 2015. For its first major consumer launch last week
journalists were flown in from South Africa, Europe and beyond to witness
the kind of event usually hosted by Apple or Samsung.
Chief executive Richard Yu stood on stage to announce the Huawei Ascend P6 –
the world’s thinnest smartphone – and to issue a clear statement of intent.
The company has the ambition, simply put, to make the best smartphone in the
world and to sell it for less than Apple or Samsung.
If that sounds like hubris, no lesser figure than Sir Charles Dunstone, chief
executive of Carphone Warehouse, says Huawei’s a force to be reckoned with:
“I think it’d be hard to displace Samsung and Apple. But with products like
these priced like they are, I think Huawei has very credible aims.
“There’s a lot of people vying to be in the top three and they’ve got to take
these products incredibly seriously. It’s an amazing line-up backed by the
most enormous research and development.”
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