Huawei is one of the international leader in ICT solutions. Huawei is keenin enhancing customer experiences and creating maximum value for telecom carriers, companies, and patrons as a result of incessantrevolution based on customer desires. Around 170 countries and regions use their telecom network equipment, IT products and solutions, and smart devices.In 2013, Huawei ranked 285th on the Global Fortune 500 with annual sales revenue of USD39.6 billion(Huawei 2015)

Huawei invests over 10% of its annual sales revenue into R&D and more than 45% of the 150,000 employees engage in R&D. In 2013, the company achieved stability and vigorous growth in carrier system, business, and consumer trades due to its well-balanced presence all over the world. The company saw an increment of 8.5% in the annual sale revenue in comparison to the previous year in which amounted to CNY239, 025 million.

The Smartphone market is always alive and booming, thanks to the excellent product innovations by the mobile companies. Due to its low-cost strategy targeted for the emerging markets, shipment volume and market share ofHuawei’s mobile devices have been increasing constantly since the second quarter of 2011.In itssmartphone business, Huawei had launched several Smartphones covering entry-level, mid-range, and high-endmodels in 2010 and 2011 to augment its product line, in an attempt to turn around the future global Smartphonemarket landscape.

Founded in 1987, Huawei has grown from a USD 5,680 small company to a global company with a sales volume of over USD 39 billion with business presence in over 170 countries and regions thanks to the tireless efforts of its staff and the company’s global mindset.

The core values of Huawei include the below:

In the high-end market, Apple has been able to sustain and strengthen its leading position in the industry and is unlikely to be surpassed in the short term. Huawei has become the new favorite in the Android mobile phone market and venerated by the public because of phones withadvanced technology and considerably low price.This report will cover a competitor analysis of Huawei with Apple UK and then proceed on to discussing the marketing mix and marketing strategy of Huawei mobile in detail.

2. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

As far as market share is concerned, the market share of Huawei in smartphone market has been constantly rising. From 3.3% in the first quarter of 2012, it has risen to 6.9% in the last quarter of 2014 (Statista, 2015). Below chart shows the growth.

Figure 2: Growth of Huawei’s market share

Source: (Statista,2015)

However, with Apple as the competitor, Huawei sure lags behind in terms of numbers. But the growing market share presents a ray of hope that Huawei may catch up with Apple’s share very soon.

Talking about UK market, Apple currently has a market share of 42.5% whereas Huawei has a market share of 3% (Page, 2015). Huawei is doing better in the domestic markets as of now.

Smaller manufacturers are struggling for position within the profitable smartphone market and posing a tough competition for global brands.

Well-known brands are presentingresurgence and novices to the marketplace such as Huawei are posturing challenge to the reputable names. Huawei observed that thequantity of smartphones it sold jump 123% over the previous year(Hawker.com.bd 2014). Consumers are now finding cheap alternatives as they now understood the actual cost of handsets.

Below tables show Global smartphone shipments for last two years. Apple leads the chart with 15% while Huawei is at 5.8%.

Figure 3: Global mobile shipments

(Statista 2015)

Figure 4 Global mobile shipments

(Statista, 2015)

Now the competitor analysis will be performed by considering different parameters.

Technology: Huaweihas struggled a lot to get rid of their image of a low-cost producer of telecommunications apparatus. In recent years, Green credentials of its apparatus has also been improved by Huawei. This was achieved by the company by leveraging itswidespread and highly talentedR&D staff.The company is gaining advantage because of its increasing customer base, as well as opponents, for its expertisecapability.

Customer service: One area of strength noted by many Huawei customers is that the companyapproaches them with a sense of modesty and willingness to delight. This has led to strongcustomer relations, especiallyin terms of after sales support,and consequently improved market footing. This has served the company well in its effort to gain market grip outside of its home market of China.The huge assurance of the Apple brand offers Apple with animmensetask to live up to. The inventive, elegantly-designed, extremely ergonomic, and hi tech products which Apple supplies are not only fabricatedto balancethe brand assurance, but are central to keeping it.Products & ServicesTelecom network apparatus, IT merchandises and solutions, and smartgadgets.personal supercomputers, mobile communiqué and broadcastingapparatuses, and handy digital music players, and vends linked software, facilities, peripherals, interacting resolutions, and third-party numerical content and applications.PricingLow cost, in line with features, value for money.PremiumDistribution channelsE-commerce, digital dissemination, vendors and operatives.Elite and organized. Retailers, ecommerce and operatives.StrengthsHuawei has fundamental strengths of avigorous and substantialprotected marketand its capacity to supplyapparatus at low cost. It has home base in China and the company has achieved a foremostfootmark in asubstantial and vigorous telecommunicationsmarketplace. With the help of its base, it has achieved economies of scale and gainedvitalstrength—distributingapparatus at very low costs. Better economies of scale obviouslyenhance the economicedifice of an organization. A highly potential R&D staff has also been a great strength. Thestore base is widespread and low cost. The R&D staff is largely based in China.This R&D base empowers theyet another area of strength—knowledge and expertise. Huawei has been rapid to progress and acclimategoods to customer desires.Innovation: Apple, with the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs achieved success and enjoy the lead in fast moving technological advancements. This was predominantlyevidentwhen the company propelled its first iPhone (June, 2007) and iPad (April, 2010) mobile Internet devices. Pioneeringmerchandises will continue asdistinctivecapability of Apple.

Strong Finances: Since the launch of its First iphone, the company has been a cash cow.The company can easily invest in copyrights, modernizations and strategic acquirements as it has rich cash reserves.

Brand: Apple is one of the most well-known and vigorous IT brands in the world, and has an extremely devoted set of passionate customers that promote the brand. Such ainfluentialfaithfulnesssignifies that Apple not only acquires new customer base, it holdsthem, and the corporation also has the prospect to spread new merchandises to them.WeaknessesLike Apple, Huawei does not enjoy any kind of background or heritage in telecommunications industry. Weakness endures in North America from a geographical point of view.The province, though established, remains substantialand is significantheadlock for Huawei’stopmostcompetitors.Premium Pricing: Apple’s work outappliancesare typically among the costlier ones on the market, even though the company did try to multiply into the great value section when it propelled its scaled-down iPhone 5C smartphone in September of 2013. This extravagancestanding has made it problematic for Apple to make big inroads in a foreign country, in nations where the stresses on regular consumers are substantial. It also cause to bethe vulnerability of the company to price rivalry, not only from South Korea’s Samsung but also from up-and-coming OEMs, like China’s Huawei.OpportunitiesThe enduringbang in mobile informationcirculationsignifiesthe basicprospect for telecommunicationsapparatussellers. The requirement for network infrastructurethat delivers greater capacity and bandwidth, at the lowest possible cost per bit, will drive investments in the next-generation technologies and products offered by vendors such as Huawei.Their prospects do not onlyexist inarrangement ofinnovativesystemsbut also in the alteration of bequest systemstoward a communications infrastructure demarcated by IP and mobility.

Internationalization effort made by Huawei has generatedsturdybonuses in the crucialdevelopingprovinces of Asia, the Americas, Africa,and the Middle East. Unlike the more established markets of North America and Western Europe,these zones are composed to endure to nurture in the near future.Smartphones demand has been increasing day by day and Apple can effortlesslyexploit it. It is becoming very easy for Apple to make a smooth incorporation with the Macsas iPhones and iPads arehighly used in corporate environments. Furthermore, iCloud incorporationproposes fantasticprospects and can enhance the plea for other Apple instruments.ThreatsA recent alliance of its competition is a key threatfaced byHuawei intherecent years. Nortel’s CDMA was acquired by Erricson and achieved a considerable market standing in doing so in North America. Nokia Siemens is following an alikeapproachin theprocurement of Motorola’s wireless portfolio.They can muddleHuawei’s struggle to formfootmark in the North American marketplace. The mounting service provider–allied operations of old-style IT merchants such as HP and IBMis yet another componentposing competitive stress on Huawei. These establishmentsperceivemomentousprospects in the telecommunications sector and,in particular,withinthe zonesof managed services.To end with, there is the ongoingdanger that withintheprogressivelytieduniversaleconomy corporations mustfunction in,issues related to geopolitics willascend andunavoidablymuddle the commercialexpansionprocedure.

Another area of threat is the insight of Chinese corporations as being of low quality.Almost all the tech companies face competition which is inevitable treat to all the companies who are struggling in hi tech market serving an extremely aware customer. Apple is exclusivelysusceptible to price overlooking by low-cost competitors from China and in another place. Cannibalization is a concern for all the companiesongoing to increase its standin mobile Internet devices.

Gross Margin Compressionscould ascend from cumulativerivalry, product scarcities, or mountingelementcosts.

3. HUAWEI’S MARKETING STRATEGY

Marketing strategy helps the company to decide where it will be in a term of 3 or 5 years (Lambin et al., 1993). After years of low-profile development,Huawei Technologies Co., renowned as a supplier of telecoms network apparatus and know-how solutions, is relishingnoteworthyoutcomes in its mobile handset trade. With its continuous rise in expansion of mobile phones and liaison with the overseas telecom operators, the sales of Huawei’s handsets also mounted.About 170 countries has seen the sales of Huawei devices.Initially, its handsets were primarilyvended with agreements or as part of special deals, but the phones were deficient invibrant branding. Such transactionsprogressivelyerected customers across many nations.

The structure of the global telecom market was changed withthe intensification of 3G wireless service .Its liaison with worldwide telecom operators has been an advantage to Huawei.

The year 2010 was crucial to Huawei’s

mobile phone trade. The company allied its business policy to encounteremerging domestic requirementfor economy smart phones. Since then, it has put more focus on mobile phone development and marketing. Lower end segment was long back ignored byInternationaltitanssuch as Samsung, Apple and Nokia.In the meantime, many of China’s inland phone manufacturers lack innovativeknow-how. This proved to be the boon to Huawei.

C8500 was its first 3G mobile which was designed for China Telecom. In its initial 100 days, it sold about 1 million handsets. In partnership with China Telecom, Huawei sold around 20 million 3G phones.

Very Soon, Huawei acquired this domestic approachinternationally and wonsubstantial market share midst smart phone users of lower classparticularly in Africa and Latin America.

While reinforcing its market share in the low-end market,Huawei could start evolving higher-end products.In the meantime, the corporation, which largelyhinge on on telecom operators for phone sales, also required to contemplate onerecting its own trades and supply systems. Moreover, Huawei has also displayedconcern in evolving its own functioningorganism because it started using Android (Min, 2013).

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