The Old Hand: ten years of B2B smartphone trading, May 2019

Huawei today, gone tomorrow? I think not!

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei in Shenzhen, China, is now the second largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world and is hot on the tail of its biggest competitor, Samsung. Yet again, another unbelievable success story from the Far East.

What can go wrong in our marketplace for such a dynamic company as Huawei?

It’s the old story that if you make it so big with such an appetite for success, then someone somewhere in the international market space is not going to like your success. Their distaste for you will likely be down to the fact that it is having an effect on their success and ultimately their bottom line. Follow the money and there you will find the answer to the problem.

For the last few decades, there have been many conflicting stories that have implied that Huawei may impose international security threats through their network implementations and smartphone hardware, enabling them to spy on their competitors. Even more controversial is the idea that they also spy for their country. The basis of these implications are founded on the fact that Zhengfei, was also, in his previous life, a former People’s Liberation Army engineer in China.