Huawei

Many Android smartphone manufacturers have already entered the Android Wear race, with the latest entry—the aptly-named Huawei Watch—coming from Chinese company Huawei at Mobile World Congress last week. Today, it looks like the first evidence of an Android Wear device coming from another Chinese OEM, Oppo, have surfaced on the web via a couple of different sketchy Chinese sources.

The above smartwatch, sporting a fairly traditional design, might just be Oppo’s upcoming entrant…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei: Rumored $1,000 cost ‘out of range’ of base model Huawei Watch price

Stephen Hall Mar 6 2015 - 8:47 am PT

4 Comments

A rumor began circulating the Android blogs a couple of days ago that the Huawei Watch is going to cost about a grand when it launches. Intentionally or not, the original source of this rumor didn’t exactly specify which model of the device would cost this much, saying only that the “Huawei Watch price is $1,000”.

While we still don’t know what the different variants of the device will cost—as Huawei hasn’t announced pricing for any of them yet—we now have confirmation from the Chinese company that the base model will most definitely not cost $1,000…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Hands-on with the beautiful Android Wear powered Huawei Watch (Video)

Dom Esposito Mar 4 2015 - 4:58 am PT

As many of you know already, when it comes to Android Wear smart watches, style is the defining factor. The software experience will be the same on any Android Wear smartwatch, but the mobile market is still trying to prove it can deliver on something that’s not only functional, but stylish as well. This year at MWC 2015, Huawei became a serious competitor in the smart watch space. Meet Huawei Watch. I think you’ll like it…

This is the Huawei Watch, an extremely elegant and attractive Android Wear entry

Stephen Hall Mar 2 2015 - 7:21 am PT

As was expected (thanks to an advertisement spotted in the Barcelona Airport), Huawei came out this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain to announce its first entry into the Android Wear race: the Huawei Watch.

A first impression of the device might quickly lead you to believe that this is one of the most—if not the most—attractive Android Wear devices to launch, and based on what Huawei’s shown us, this thing might just be worthy of such a judgment…

Advertisement for ‘Huawei Watch’ Android Wear device spotted in the Barcelona Airport

Stephen Hall Feb 28 2015 - 11:12 am PT

It looks like Huawei is about to enter the Android Wear race with a new device called the “Huawei Watch,” as has been spotted by Android Central in a Barcelona Airport advertisement. Touting a “Timeless design. Smart within.” tagline, the device looks to be a classy circular smartwatch coming in gold, silver, and black variants and a few different band styles. In the reflection of the silver device, there looks to be some kind of fitness feature.

The device looks to sport an aesthetic similar to the Moto 360, but this watch seems to have a singular button that’s placed at an angle on the right side. The model of the device that’s silver seems to sport a band similar to the milanese loop that Apple showed off earlier this year alongside the Apple Watch. There’s no word yet on details like pricing and release date, but we’re at MWC in Barcelona this week and we’ll keep you updated.

Comms chip company Qualcomm fined almost $1B in Chinese anti-trust case

Ben Lovejoy Feb 10 2015 - 4:39 am PT

Qualcomm, which licenses 3G and 4G communications patents to smartphone manufacturers, has been fined almost a billion dollars by the Chinese government in an anti-trust case. The company was found to have abused its dominant position in wireless chip technology by charging “unfairly high” licensing fees to manufacturers of smartphones and tablets.

The 6B Yuan ($960M) fine is the largest fine ever imposed on a foreign company, reports the Guardian. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that the fine was calculated as 8% of Qualcomm’s 2013 revenue in China. China is responsible for around half of Qualcomm’s total revenue.

Chinese regulators said that Qualcomm bundled together patent licenses, forcing Chinese companies to buy unwanted licenses in order to get the core 3G and 4G ones they needed. Qualcomm said that it was disappointed by the ruling, but has agreed to separate out its licenses to allow companies to purchase only the ones they need.

The ruling should reduce costs for Chinese smartphone makers, but it isn’t known how significant the saving may be, and it’s unlikely to show up as a price-reduction for consumers.

Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters

Huawei has record-breaking year: 75M phones, over $12B revenue

Ben Lovejoy Jan 27 2015 - 7:33 am PT

2 Comments

Chinese manufacturer Huawei has announced record-breaking results for 2014, with smartphone sales up 45% to 75 million and revenue up 30% to $12.2B. The numbers aren’t too great a surprise, as Reuters came pretty close to calling them in a piece posted on New Year’s Eve.

The dramatic growth in sales could see Huawei threatening the rankings of both LG and Xiaomi in the next round of market share estimates after recently being knocked down into fifth place …

Huawei smartphone sales up 40%, revenues up almost a third, says Reuters

Ben Lovejoy Dec 31 2014 - 4:08 am PT

Reuters has pre-empted Huawei’s financial results, due to be released next month, citing an internal memo showing a 40% year-on-year increase in smartphone sales, with divisional revenue up almost a third to $11.8B.

The division shipped about 75 million smartphones in 2014, according to the year-end memo to employees sent by Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer business. Although that represented a more than 40 percent year-on-year increase, the figure lagged behind Huawei’s previously stated sales target of 80 million units.

While the company started life making low-end handsets, it later branched out into high-end smartphones, including the recently-announced Honor 6 Plus, closely modelled on Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei launches 5.5″ Honor 6 Plus w/ dual rear-facing cameras for shooting in the dark

9to5 Staff Dec 16 2014 - 8:04 am PT

Chinese handset maker Huawei took the stage in Beijing today to introduce its next-generation flagship smartphone, the familiar sounding Honor 6 Plus. The all-new device, which has an unforgivably similar name to the iPhone 6 Plus, has a sleek, metallic design and takes on HTC with dual 8-megapixel rear-facing cameras and another 8-megapixel front-facing camera for added measure.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Patent dispute halts some (all?) Xiaomi smartphone sales in India (Update: confirmed)

Ben Lovejoy Dec 11 2014 - 4:08 am PT

The Times of India reports that the Delhi high court has banned Xiaomi from both importing and selling smartphones in India following a patent infringement claim by Ericsson.

Hearing a case filed by Ericsson India against Xiaomi, the court on Monday passed an ex parte order forbidding the popular Chinese manufacturer from importing and selling its smartphones in India […]

It is not clear if the order will impact all Xiaomi devices sold in India or specific devices that violate the patents.

However, as the patents concerned are Standard Essential Patents – patents which are so fundamental to a particular product category that the patent owner is obliged by law to license them on reasonable terms – it appears likely that the ruling applies to all Xiaomi handsets …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Samsung staff braced for redundancies as company set to announce annual personnel changes

Ben Lovejoy Nov 28 2014 - 5:01 am PT

Many Samsung employees are expected to lose their jobs in the next week or two as the company is set to announce its annual personnel changes early next month. The company recently reported a 74% drop in mobile profits and is planning to produce 30% fewer smartphone models next year in the face of increasing competition from Chinese brands Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei.

Dramatically slowing sales of its flagship handset led the company to shore up its share price with a $2B stock buyback …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei’s Ascend Mate 2 to get Android 5.0 Lollipop in the first half of 2015

Mark Hearn Nov 21 2014 - 8:39 am PT

Last month, Google formally announced Android Lollipop and soon after a tidal wave of supporters started sharing plans to update their hardware to the search giant’s newest mobile operating system. We can now add Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei to the list of growing adopters as today the company announced that its Ascend Mate 2 will make the jump to Android 5.0 within the first half of next year.

IFA 2014 Preview: Here’s what you can expect from Samsung, Sony, ASUS, LG, and more (Video)

Dom Esposito Aug 30 2014 - 5:28 am PT

8 Comments

IFA 2014 is almost here and we’ll be out in Berlin bringing you full coverage of the show. If you’ve never heard of IFA, it’s a Berlin based trade show that’s similar to CES. IFA is up there as one of the largest trade shows of the year which normally brings a handful of exciting announcements in all areas of technology. While September may be a fruit company’s only time to shine, the rest of the major tech giants are busy finishing out the year with a bang…

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 spotted in the wild before its IFA reveal

Mark Hearn Aug 28 2014 - 7:35 am PT

2 Comments

Huawei is set to unveil its new Ascend Mate 7 next week during IFA in Berlin, however the unreleased phone appears to have been spotted in the wild prior to its big showing. A device referred to as the Chinese phone maker’s next handset recently made a cameo appearance on the Asian microblogging site Weibo, revealing a phone that is somewhat reminiscent of the HTC One Max.

Credit rating agency Fitch says Samsung’s market share will fall from 31 to 25 percent

Ben Lovejoy Aug 12 2014 - 4:01 am PT

Samsung’s troubles are far from over, says credit rating Fitch, predicting that the company’s share of the smartphone market will fall from 31 percent last year to 25 percent next year, reports the WSJ.

Nitin Soni, a Singapore-based director of corporate ratings at Fitch, warned that Samsung had lost its edge with consumers as Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei make cheaper and cheaper products that meet most consumers’ needs.

He added that innovations like wearable devices and curved screens – two of Samsung’s recent tricks – are “unlikely to change the trend” …

As expected, Samsung Mobile profits slump 31 percent as Chinese competition bites

Ben Lovejoy Jul 31 2014 - 4:55 am PT

3 Comments

Samsung has announced a 31 percent drop in for its mobile division, broadly in line with its earlier guidance, when almost 200 managers “voluntarily” handed back 25 percent of their bonuses. Year-on-year operating profits fell from 6.43T won ($6.28B) to 4.42T won ($4.32B).

Chinese competition in low- and mid-range handsets was cited as one of the key reasons for the slump, with Samsung Mobile’s SVP Kim Hyun-Joon promising that the company would address this.

We will respond more aggressively to meet demand in the Chinese market […] in the latter half of this year by introducing more products with better specification as well as better price competitiveness …

Samsung & Apple lose share to smaller Chinese OEMs in Q2 smartphone shipment numbers

Jordan Kahn Jul 29 2014 - 10:05 am PT

Following releasing its second quarter data for tablet shipments worldwide, IDC today released its Q2 2014 report for smartphone shipments during the three month period that ended in June. The numbers line up with Apple’s fiscal Q3 earnings call that took place earlier this month where the company reported iPhone sales of 35.1 million units for the quarter. With 295.3 million units shipped total during Q2, IDC notes that both Samsung and Apple lost share to the smaller Chinese manufacturers:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Meet the Ascend P7, Huawei’s new ultra-thin flagship smartphone

Mark Hearn May 7 2014 - 8:24 am PT

Today during a press event in Paris, Chinese phone maker Huawei announced its newest smartphone, the Ascend P7. At a glance, this slim 6.5mm device bears a small resemblance to an iPhone, but there’s definitely some noticeable differences going on here. The Ascend P7 features a 5-inch 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing shooter accompanied by an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and a HiSilicon quad-core 1.8GHz processor.

Google, Android manufacturers agree to participate in “Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment” program

Mike Beasley Apr 15 2014 - 3:34 pm PT

Google has agreed to back a new initiative along with a host of Android manufacturers and all of the major U.S. cellular carriers that would require all smartphones manufactured after July 2015 to come with specific anti-theft features. The program is the latest attempt to prevent theft of smartphones, which some have blamed for increasing crime rates.

To this end, Google introduced the Android Device Manager application last year, allowing users to locate or wipe lost or stolen devices. Today’s agreement between the carriers and handset manufacturers essentially states that all parties will ship this type of system on new phones.

Specifically, the required anti-theft measures are broken into four kinds:

Expand
Expanding
Close

A billion smartphones were sold last year, says IDC

Ben Lovejoy Jan 28 2014 - 6:23 am PT

: Image: theguardian.com

A billion smartphones were sold in 2013, according to IDC data, the first time the milestone has been hit. The number represents one smartphone sale for every seventh man, woman and child on the planet.

IDC says that price has been the main driver for growth, putting yesterday’s market share stats into perspective.

Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments

Samsung feeling the pressure as Android market share approaches 70 percent

Ben Lovejoy Jan 27 2014 - 4:36 am PT

Increasing competition in the Android market is placing Samsung under increased pressure, says Kantar, reporting sales figures for the final quarter of 2013.

After years of accelerated growth, Samsung is now coming under real pressure in most regions, with European share down by 2.2 percentage points to 40.3% and in China its share ended the year flat at 23.7% …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei to finally exit US market after years of Cyberspying accusations

David Beren Dec 3 2013 - 10:35 am PT

After years of accusations of being proxy spies for Chinese military and intelligence agencies, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei says his company is exiting the US market. In an interview provided to French journalists, the CEO of the worlds largest telecommunications equipment provider says his company will no longer fight to stay in the US market.

Smartphone chip race is on as Qualcomm goes 4K and MediaTek announces faster rival

Ben Lovejoy Nov 20 2013 - 5:41 am PT