China's Smartphone manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, looking to win U.S. buyers away from Apple and Samsung, showcase new smartphones at CES.
Tech biggies Apple, Google, and Microsoft were no-shows at CES this week in Las Vegas that proved to be just fine for Chinese manufacturers looking to establish a name for themselves with U.S. consumers. Telecom companies Huawei and ZTE, in particular, have set their eyes on breaking into the U.S. market for Smartphone and tablets.
That objective may seem little difficult – majority of consumers may remember that a select committee from the U.S. House of Representatives slammed Huawei and ZTE in October. The House report warned U.S. companies against using devices from Huawei and ZTE: "Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our information systems." During the same time, Cisco reportedly broke ties with ZTE after a year-long investigation into allegations that the company sold Cisco gear to Iran.
While the chances on a breakthrough may be long -- after all, Huawei has been unsuccessful in getting most U.S. carriers to offer its branded products -- the Chinese firms appear uncowed and confident. ZTE even had the guts to ding Apple in public last year, saying the slow pace of iPhone releases indicate that the iconic American company was losing its edge. The IDG News Service report notes:
Huawei also unveiled the Ascend D2 which the company claims is the world's most powerful smartphone. It sports a 5-inch 1080p display, a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, Android "Jelly Bean," a 13-megapixel rear camera, and 3,000mAh battery.
ZTE also jumped on the big-screen smartphone bandwagon at CES, introducing a flagship Android phone with a 5-inch full HD display. The ZTE Grand S will be launched in China in early 2013, but ZTE said it is in talks with two carriers about selling the phone in the US. The Grand S is one of the thinnest smartphones available in the market at 6.9mm thick (the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm) and runs on the "Jelly Bean" version of Android and a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.
Whether these Chinese devices can take on the likes of Apple and Samsung remains to be seen, but as Wired quotes Jeff Lotman, the CEO of Global Icons, an agency which helps companies build and license their brands:
That objective may seem little difficult – majority of consumers may remember that a select committee from the U.S. House of Representatives slammed Huawei and ZTE in October. The House report warned U.S. companies against using devices from Huawei and ZTE: "Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our information systems." During the same time, Cisco reportedly broke ties with ZTE after a year-long investigation into allegations that the company sold Cisco gear to Iran.
While the chances on a breakthrough may be long -- after all, Huawei has been unsuccessful in getting most U.S. carriers to offer its branded products -- the Chinese firms appear uncowed and confident. ZTE even had the guts to ding Apple in public last year, saying the slow pace of iPhone releases indicate that the iconic American company was losing its edge. The IDG News Service report notes:
While ZTE is 3 positions behind Apple as the world's fifth-largest smartphone supplier, according to research agency IDC, the Chinese company saw second-quarter smartphone shipments grow 300 % year on year. Helping to fuel that growth was the Chinese market, where ZTE narrowly beat Apple in market share by selling lower-end smartphones.As part of Huawei's strategy to win the U.S. market -- which CEO Richard Yu calls "key" to the company's future -- Huawei launched two new smartphones this week at CES. The Ascend Mate has the world's biggest display; at 6.1 inches, it surpasses even the popular Samsung Galaxy Note II with its 5.5-inch screen and prompts Joel Evans at ZDnet to ask how big is too big for a smartphone. The phone runs Android 4.1 with a custom Huawei user interface, and its dust- and water-resistant feature has been cited as one of the five smartphone trends from CES. It also boasts an impressive 4,050mAh battery which should result in longer usage time between recharges.
Huawei also unveiled the Ascend D2 which the company claims is the world's most powerful smartphone. It sports a 5-inch 1080p display, a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, Android "Jelly Bean," a 13-megapixel rear camera, and 3,000mAh battery.
ZTE also jumped on the big-screen smartphone bandwagon at CES, introducing a flagship Android phone with a 5-inch full HD display. The ZTE Grand S will be launched in China in early 2013, but ZTE said it is in talks with two carriers about selling the phone in the US. The Grand S is one of the thinnest smartphones available in the market at 6.9mm thick (the iPhone 5 is 7.6mm) and runs on the "Jelly Bean" version of Android and a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.
Whether these Chinese devices can take on the likes of Apple and Samsung remains to be seen, but as Wired quotes Jeff Lotman, the CEO of Global Icons, an agency which helps companies build and license their brands:
The thing that's amazing is these are big companies, and they have a lot of power, but in the United States nobody has heard of them and they're having trouble gaining traction, but it's not impossible. Samsung was once famous for making crappy, low-end phones and cheap TVs. Now they're seen as a top TV and smartphone brand.Nothing is impossible!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment