4G SIM NewsChinese network equipment manufacturer Huawei has reported an increase in sales for the first six months of the year, and credits the demand for its 4G network equipment – along with increased awareness of its consumer devices – for the uplift.
Huawei has reported a 19% rise in sales for the first half of 2014, equalling around £12.8 billion, and says it expects to make an operating profit of more than 18% for the period. Although the company did not give a breakdown of its sales figures, it believes that a large part of its success is down to increased adoption of 4G and the use of its 4G network equipment.
Although European manufacturers such as Nokia Solutions and Networks and Ericsson were originally favoured for early LTE deployments in the USA, Japan, and South Korea, Huawei have been very successful in gaining business in Europe. The company has now deployed more than one hundred 4G LTE networks across the world – more than any other vendor – and has won over two hundred commercial LTE contracts. As well as deploying 4G networks, Huawei has also invested almost £400 million in research into 5G.
According to Huawei CFO Cathy Meng, “Driven by increasing investments in LTE networks worldwide, Huawei has further solidified its leadership position in mobile broadband. Rapid growth in software and services helped maintain steady growth in our carrier network business. Our efforts in the enterprise business have begun to pay off. We have enjoyed accelerated growth in this area.”
In the UK Huawei is well known for its 4G routers and WiFi dongles such as the Huawei B593 4G Router, the Huawei E392 MBB Stick, and the Huawei E5776 Mobile WiFi, which are all available from EE.
Huawei Smartphones
4G network equipment isn’t the only sector in which Huawei has seen impressive growth; its consumer smartphones are also gaining popularity. Although it started out as a manufacturer of network equipment, the company has benefitted from branching out into high growth areas such as smartphone manufacture, and it is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of smartphones, shipping an impressive 13.7 million devices in the first quarter of 2014.
Smartphones available in the UK include:
- Huawei Ascend G6 4G
- Huawei Ascend P6
- Huawei Ascend Y530
- Huawei Ascend Y300
- Huawei Ascend G510
- Huawei G7220
Not content with its rapid expansion into the smartphone market, Huawei has also been keen to get started in the wearable technology sector and introduced its hybrid Talkband smart device earlier this year.
Huawei’s continued growth comes despite US concerns about alleged links to the Chinese government and military. Although Huawei has continually denied that it poses a security threat, and affirmed that it is wholly owned by its employees and founder, US politicians continue to fear the company, partly because Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei was a former member of the People’s Liberation Army. This has led to intense scrutiny of the company from US based law makers and regulators, and even rumours that the US National Security Agency had infiltrated Huawei servers.