Huawei
English name: Huawei
Chinese name: 华为
Founded: 1987
Founder: Ren Zhengfei
Headquarters: Shenzhen, Guandong
Key people: Ren Zhengfei (founder & CEO), Liang Hua (chairman), Meng Wanzhou (deputy chairwoman & CFO)
Websites: www.huawei.com
Encyclopaedic information: Wikipedia, Baidu
Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. It designs, develops, and sells telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics.
Established as in 1987, the company was founded by Ren Zhengfei to build a domestic Chinese telecommunication company that could compete with, and ultimately replace, foreign competitors.
The company’s first major breakthrough came in 1993 when it launched its C&C08 program controlled telephone switch. It was by far the most powerful switch available in China at the time. By initially deploying in small cities and rural areas with emphasis on service and customisability, the company gained market share and made its way into the mainstream market. It subsequently expanded overseas with contracts to supply telecommunications equipment in many countries.
In July 2003, Huawei established their handset department and by 2004, Huawei shipped their first phone, the C300. The U626 was Huawei’s first 3G phone in June 2005 and in 2006, Huawei launched the first Vodafone-branded 3G handset, the V710. The U8220 was Huawei’s first Android smartphone and was unveiled in MWC 2009.
In July 2010, Huawei was included in the Global Fortune 500 2010 list published by the US magazine Fortune for the first time, on the strength of annual sales of $21.8 billion and net profit of $2.67 billion.
In September 2012, Huawei launched their first 4G ready phone, the Ascend P1 LTE. At MWC 2013, the Ascend P2 was launched as the world’s first LTE Cat4 smartphone. In December 2013, Huawei introduced Honor as a subsidiary independent brand in China.
Huawei announced its first Android Wear-based smartwatch the Huawei Watch, at 2015 Mobile World Congress on 1 March 2015. In 2016, Huawei entered the laptop markets with the release of its Huawei MateBook series of laptops. The HUAWEI MatePad Pro tablet, launched in November 2019.
Huawei is the second-biggest smartphone maker in the world, after Samsung, as of the first quarter of 2019.
