1. Please discuss and evaluate Huawei’s key competitive advantages in the smartphone market Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (in the following called

‘Huawei’) is the world’s largest telecom equipment maker (in the B2B market) and China’s largest telephone-

network equipment maker.

Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei. The company started out as a reseller of phone switches and worked its way up by manufacturing its own products. It is today known as a global information and communications technology (ICT) solution provider.

The company was initially focused on its domestic market of China, but has since expanded into over 170 countries, and claims to serve more than one-third of the world’s population.

In 2017, Huawei generated a revenue of USD 92,5 billion, with USD 7,3 billion as net profit. By the end of 2017, Huawei had 180,000 employees.

As of 2008, Huawei ranked first in terms of global market share in the B2B mobile softswitches market, tied with Sony Ericsson for lead market share in mobile broadband cards by revenue, ranked second in the optical hardware market, and ranked third in mobile network equipment. In 2009, Huawei was ranked No. 2 in global market share for radio access equipment.

Analysis in this case will focus on Huawei’s consumer business. This segment contributes to more than a third of its revenue, of which smartphones is the main product. Huawei has gained significant momentum in the smartphone market in recent years, which propelled it to the third position in the market, after Samsung and Apple