Huawei Closing in on Apple, Aims to Become World's Largest Smartphone Maker Within Four Years

[Constable Odo]

For the past few years it Xiaomi going to take down Apple and now it's either Huawei or OPPO. Every year there is going to be some Chinese company bragging about destroying Apple's iPhone business. If Apple is taking most of the smartphone profits, what difference does it make how many Android smartphones are sold? Xiaomi's CEO got canned because the company was losing money. In fact, the company has been losing money since it was founded. It's good Chinese consumers are loyal to their country's own manufacturers. That's the way it should be. Just because Americans are so happy buying foreign brands, it's a wonder the U.S. economy is so messed up. What's the point of building smartphones in America if the turncoat American consumer is going to buy from S. Korea or China? Americans don't seem to be loyal to American companies.

Let Huawei brag about taking Apple down. More power to them. It's easy to talk a great game but it still has to be carried out by actual sales and I mean profitable sales. Selling products below cost to gain market share is a business for fools.

Is this something to be proud of? Selling 36 million mid-range smartphones at half the price Apple is selling 45 million high-end iPhones? Forget the unit numbers and focus on the profits. It's just so foolish to be gloating about. Let's see what Huawei's accounting books look like before passing judgment.

 

[CEmajr]

Its easy to sell big volume on extremely thin to nonexistent margins. Ask Samsung. That's why "worlds largest smartphone maker" seems like a pretty trivial title when a "smaller smartphone maker" (Apple) is taking in almost all of the industry's profits.

So the big question is who else besides Apple and to a much lesser degree, Samsung, can actually generate profit in the industry?

 

[Andreas56938]

A: Apple is the best!

B: Apple used to be the best, when Steve Jobs was alive.

A: But, but, but, Apple sells the most products!

B: No, Apple does not sell the most products.

A: But, but, but, Apple makes the most profits!

B: Yes. Although, how does this benefit you, the buyer of Apple products?

crickets...

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

This is awesome. We really need some more competition in the smartphone space. When the manufacturers keep each other on each other's toes, then we the customers win.

I recently picked up a used Nexus 6P (made by Huawei) and I love this device. If all of their devices have a build this solid, then I think they have a winning formula.

The one thing that this Nexus has, though, is stock Android. Huawei's phone need that pronto.

As a side note, I'd really like to see Google one day dominate with their Pixel line of phones. Kind of wished the article was talking about them instead of Huawei.

Or, what happens is the other manufacturers think their products are just as good as Apple and charge the same (ridiculously high) prices as Apple and no one wins.

 

[I7guy]

Or, what happens is the other manufacturers think their products are just as good as Apple and charge the same (ridiculously high) prices as Apple and no one wins.

The market will determine the answer to your question.

 

[Karma*Police]

Sales figures isn't everything. You need sales volumes and profit. And Apple seems to have a stranglehold on the latter.

Good point. Who cares how big you become if you're not making any money. HP and Dell sell far more computers than Apple but they'd switch with Apple in a heartbeat for their profits.

 

[Fenez]

Smart phones are a commodity at this point, there is very little difference in operating systems. With every iteration they move closer to each other, there is nothing that one phone does that another cant do, I've checked out some of huawei's stuff and the build quality is really good and the phones seem to review well.year after year more people will be less concerned with which Os and more concerned with price because that is the nature of electronics.

 

[Karma*Police]

This is awesome. We really need some more competition in the smartphone space. When the manufacturers keep each other on each other's toes, then we the customers win.

I recently picked up a used Nexus 6P (made by Huawei) and I love this device. If all of their devices have a build this solid, then I think they have a winning formula.

The one thing that this Nexus has, though, is stock Android. Huawei's phone need that pronto.

As a side note, I'd really like to see Google one day dominate with their Pixel line of phones. Kind of wished the article was talking about them instead of Huawei.

You want more competition but you want Google to dominate with their overpriced Pixel phones that fragment Android further and goes against the very principle upon which Android was created? Seems contradictory on a lot of levels.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

The market will determine the answer to your question.

It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Are Apple iPhones getting cheaper? Are Samsung S-series phones getting cheaper? Point made.

 

[0924487]

Just a reminder that biggest doesn't mean best.

They are working on being the best. The economy of scale will play a positive role in the process, like a snowball. Huawei will have a bigger stake on the negotiation table when they have enough market share and brand recognition.

Hardware-wise it is one of the best already, especially for high-end products. Apple doesn't even have its own first-party manufacturing facilities. Apple does very little in parts engineering. What Apple excel in is putting everything they can source together, in the most harmonious way.

 

[I7guy]

It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Are Apple iPhones getting cheaper? Are Samsung S-series phones getting cheaper? Point made.

But the market will determine who buys what. A person who wants an iphone is price invariant. A person who may not be able to afford an iphone will get something else presumably less expensive. That is the reality of it. If iphones are overpriced and not worth it to the masses we will all know.

 

[Thunderhawks]

Phone sales people are pushing non iPhones aggressively. A friend was persuaded at the point of sale to buy one of these. Not only that, they actually spent more than they would have getting an iPhone. Something is wrong.

Yes, with your friend!

 

[kdarling]

Not going to lie, I have never even heard of this company before. But I have been out of the tech game for a little while

Most Americans haven't heard of them, but Huawei is the planet's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, serving 90% of the largest carriers in the world.

Name me one smartphone company who doesn't want to be "biggest".

Reportedly, LG and Sony gave up trying to profit from smartphones, and now make them mostly as a showcase for their parts or expertise.

I can hardly imagine anything that I would trust less than a smartphone that's developed, built, installed and sold by a Chinese company.

I would not be surprised if China's version of NSA secretly kept a copy of all the iPhone security seeds installed at Foxconn.

Thousands of low-priced Android phones are reportedly sending user data to China.

Sigh. The code you linked to is support and system monitoring software that phone makers deliberately included.

How quickly people forget that up until iOS 5, Apple used to include the same kind of code, called Carrier IQ. It too, sent more info than intended back from a lot of phones.

--
As for the comments about making the most profit, well... Apple having a quarter trillion dollars stuck in an Irish shell company doing nothing, doesn't help any of us who paid extra. On the other hand, being able to save hundreds on a nice smartphone from a different company, is something that helps millions of consumers.

 

[pat500000]

Tim is lucky. He riding high due to iOS. If it wasn't for that...he be riding low.

 

[Wowereit]

It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Are Apple iPhones getting cheaper? Are Samsung S-series phones getting cheaper? Point made.

Funny thing: iPhone's initial pricing is going up in Germany year over year.
Resell value and prices at third party vendors go down faster year over year.
You can easily get iPhones 20% cheaper 2 to 3 months after release. That's impressive.

Same goes for MBPs. New models are way more expensive than before at Apple. If you look at third party prices, they've lost more value after a few weeks than old MBPs after 15 months.

 

[MrX8503]

Huawei is a bigger threat to Samsung than Apple. What is Huawei doing differently to overtake Apple? What are they doing differently to overtake Samsung?

Great hardware, great software, at a great price? That's actually very difficult to do and that doesn't include the logistics involved of shipping/manufacturing millions of devices. Look at the availability of the Pixel XL.

Huawei would have to consistently do this every year to be a threat to Apple and that doesn't take into account the vast ecosystem and fanbase that Apple has. There's a reason why no other company has been able to dethrone Apple for a decade now.

A: But, but, but, Apple makes the most profits!

B: Yes. Although, how does this benefit you, the buyer of Apple products?

crickets...

Apple uses those profits to continue to release products that I want to buy. Not sure why that's a hard concept to grasp.

 

[Zedcars]

I always find these statements comical . tell us where again, iPhones are built?

That has little to do with security. Apple has a very tight rein on how their phones are built; and iOS is obviously far superior from a security standpoint than the non-stock Android that Huawei produces. You really think Apple would be sloppy enough to allow security to be compromised just because it's built in China? Especially as it's a key advantage over Android. But good luck with your cheap spyware iPhone clone.

Read this:
https://www.cyberscoop.com/android-malware-china-huawei-zte-kryptowire-blu-products/

Note that Huawei (and ZTE) was one of Adups' clients.

 

[v0lume4]

Or, what happens is the other manufacturers think their products are just as good as Apple and charge the same (ridiculously high) prices as Apple and no one wins.

Oh you're absolutely right. Happens all the time. Heck look at the Google Pixel. Great phone, but in literally one phone generation we went from Nexus priced devices to iPhone priced devices. No!
[doublepost=1485399825][/doublepost]

You want more competition but you want Google to dominate with their overpriced Pixel phones that fragment Android further and goes against the very principle upon which Android was created? Seems contradictory on a lot of levels.

I'd argue that Google is trying to fight fragmentation with the Pixel. It literally gets day one updates.

As for their prices, they are very expensive, yes. Like the iPhone. Borderline overpriced when you look at phones like the OnePlus 3T doing everything that iPhones and Pixels and Galaxies can for half the price.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Its easy to sell big volume on extremely thin to nonexistent margins. Ask Samsung. That's why "worlds largest smartphone maker" seems like a pretty trivial title when a "smaller smartphone maker" (Apple) is taking in almost all of the industry's profits.

So the big question is who else besides Apple and to a much lesser degree, Samsung, can actually generate profit in the industry?

And where but on an Apple forum would Joe Consumer care?

 

[kdarling]

Apple uses those profits to continue to release products that I want to buy. Not sure why that's a hard concept to grasp.

Not sure why it's so hard to understand that Apple does not do anything like that with the majority of money it makes.

Apple only uses a fraction of its revenue (~5%) for R&D.

Whereas it puts ~30% of revenue away as sheer profit, into an Irish shell company's bank accounts.

In other words, Apple could drastically reduce its prices and still be able to spend more on R&D than it does now.

 

[MrX8503]

Not sure why it's so hard to understand that Apple does not do anything like that with the majority of money it makes.

Apple only uses a fraction of its revenue (~5%) for R&D.

Whereas it puts ~30% of revenue away as sheer profit, into an Irish shell company's bank accounts.

In other words, Apple could drastically reduce its prices and still be able to spend more on R&D than it does now.

Apple was very close to going under, so it would make sense for them to grow the largest war chest possible.

 

[kdarling]

Apple was very close to going under, so it would make sense for them to grow the largest war chest possible.

True, at least up to a point. But now they have a quarter trillion dollars stashed away.

In any case, no, all that money is not being used to bring us new products.

Heck, if they were lean and hungry again, perhaps we'd see more of the old Apple. Or maybe not.

 

[FelixDerKater]

Somewhere between a Pixel and a 7.

 

[I7guy]

True, at least up to a point. But now they have a quarter trillion dollars stashed away.

In any case, no, all that money is not being used to bring us new products.

Heck, if they were lean and hungry again, perhaps we'd see more of the old Apple. Or maybe not.

That quarter of a trillion dollars, imo, is not a war chest for unlimited R&D. I think they can afford to spend a sizeable amount on R&D without it. And nobody knows what they are really working on.
[doublepost=1485402639][/doublepost]

Not sure why it's so hard to understand that Apple does not do anything like that with the majority of money it makes.

Apple only uses a fraction of its revenue (~5%) for R&D.

Whereas it puts ~30% of revenue away as sheer profit, into an Irish shell company's bank accounts.

In other words, Apple could drastically reduce its prices and still be able to spend more on R&D than it does now.

I'm not sure why apple should reduce the prices. While I would like to get an iphone 7 from the apple store for $100, and a new Ferrari for $35K or this or that for reduced prices, the price is the price. It's up to the customer to decide if the price is worth the value. When the price/value equation goes south, apple will flounder. While we're discussing lower prices, I'd like my cable bill to be less, my cell phone bill to be less. Verizon is a massive company, it could give all it's customers a 50% discount and still make money.

 

[koruki]

I can hardly imagine anything that I would trust less than a smartphone that's developed, built, installed and sold by a Chinese company.

It's an android phone, like all android phones, the OS is android, the phone is build in China. End of story.
[doublepost=1485403505][/doublepost]

The poster wrote: developed, built, installed and sold.
iPhones built in China, but are fully develop in the U.S.
iOS is a U.S. product

They are designed in california. that is all. The chip is made in Taiwan, the body is made in china, the screen is possibly korean. Those companies all own IP for those parts. The only thing Apple really does is iOS, its secure yes but please