Huawei Mobile Phone: The suspense in the Long March

Independent six months of electrical commodity licensing "glory" in the Chinese market has the ability to challenge millet?

On the morning of August 6, Yu, the CEO of Huawei's consumer business, made a positive response to a reporter from Caijing National Weekly. That afternoon, he regrets on Weibo, "admire the marketing ability of millet, millet mobile phone China First, is a household name, and Huawei smartphone shipments in the world third, but no one knows." "

In the second quarter of 2014, Huawei's global smartphone market share, with a 6.9% per cent steady share of the world's third (fourth place 5.4%), increased shipments by as much as 95.1%, well above the second-place 38.7%.

But for Yu and Huawei consumer business, to sit third is not the goal, perhaps, now only in the real sense of the "March first step."

Attributes, "Help."

Since the beginning of 2011 as Huawei Terminal Chairman, Huawei Consumer Business CEO, in 2.5 of the time, Huawei end of the internal staff of the Yu, from the "Yu Total" to "more than a big mouth", and then back to "total", after the level of respect at the position, to the internal questioning and dissatisfaction, Finally, because of the change of leadership ability to admire.

And in the entire Huawei Group, and Yu lateral or even higher leadership, his "nickname", it has been no change, whether behind or face-to-face, these high-level often half jokingly called him "crazy".

Huawei's end-business sales reached more than $1 billion trillion for the first time in Yu's "Strategic Highland" European market in 2013, "up 41% from the previous year to 1.04 billion dollars". Huawei Consumer Business Europe Region President Ninhongliang revealed that only Huawei AscendP6 mobile phone sales in Western Europe, within six months to reach 800,000 units. According to an undisclosed internal plan, Huawei's terminal is trying to boost its Western European market's annual sales to $4 billion in the next 5 years.

In the first half of 2014, Huawei's terminal business grew by 120% in the European region (Western Europe and North-east Europe), 275% in the Asia-Pacific region and 180% in the Middle East and Africa, according to Shaoyang, a vice president of consumer marketing at Huawei.

Some data changes, even Huawei executives are too late to digest. In an interview with Caijing National Weekly, Yu and Huawei consumer Business mobile phone industry line President Gang all mentioned, Huawei Terminal in Colombia's market share has reached the second, after Samsung, Huawei Market Department staff had to remind one side, "total, we have accounted for 24%, is the first."

Huawei's smartphone shipments reached 34.27 million units in the first half of 2014, up 62% from a year earlier, while P7, released in May, has reached 2 million global shipments in the two-month period.

The internal morale of Huawei's terminal, because more than expected performance, especially the flagship product P7 success, unprecedented upsurge, to Yu "engineer Thinking Kill people" criticism, also naturally disappeared.

Originally by all business leaders as the attributes sword, instead became the Yu "life-saving straw." In 2.5 of the time, the industry on the Yu dismissed rumors, at most every six months. "In fact, every stage of the goal is not completed, I will be dismissed, today will not be here." "Yu said. But he also told the "Financial countries weekly" reporter, in the process of trying to change, "a lot of complaints against me."

Yu said that he can "survive", in addition to the immediate performance, more important is the company's top of the force.

carry the internal pressure.

Yu to "Financial countries weekly" reporter said, in the takeover of Huawei Terminal in recent years, pressure not only from the market, but also from within. From binding operators to targeting the open market, from the main to do low-end market to boutique strategy, "a few changes are very difficult to go, the noise is very large, the resistance is very large." "Yu said," Scold me for a few years, many people said I was about to die, but I still survived. "

After defining the "boutique" strategy in 2013, Yu began slashing low-end products, although this led to a slowdown in overall shipments, which has significantly increased profitability. "There were fifty or sixty in the second half, and now we have only a few products to cut." "

Whether Yu or gang, it is clearly mentioned that the Chinese market consumers of 4G mobile phone enthusiasm, far from the expected high, the market formed a "4G did not come, 3G dead" situation.

Yu's strategy of "slashing" low-end handsets has met with great resistance within Huawei. "Huawei's genes and habits are all about business-to-business business with carriers, followed by operators, and what I do for operators." "Yu said," and the operator's goal is to develop more and more users, so low-end, ultra-low, lower, the road I think is not according to the end user-oriented to do, Huawei Terminals, is a one-way road. "

Fortunately, because of Huawei's internal pursuit of "result-oriented", so that Yu's strategy in the market has achieved significant results, the internal pressure eased slightly. Especially in the global market share stability in the third place, and the fourth Lenovo has more than 1% of the interval, Yu only to get a "slow tone" opportunity.

However, Huawei consumer business resistance has not disappeared, and even originally belonged to the Hua for the consumer business of the first-line sales cadres to assess the right, but also in the process of boiling the frog in warm water was taken away by the group. In the face of Caijing National Weekly reporter, Yu as "has done homework, still parents confiscated toys" generally innocent.

China Market: 4G Suspense

Although Yu's efforts were harvested in 2014, the performance of Huawei's consumer business in the first half of the year in the Chinese market remains unsatisfactory.

At the beginning of 2014, Yu told Caijing National Weekly that the strategy of Huawei's mobile phone this year will shift from 2013 's "boutique mobile Phones" to "4G boutique handsets". Gang said that China's poor performance, "the core reason is that our 4G terminal overall price is higher, than 3G more expensive, so to achieve a large amount, it is difficult." "

For now, Huawei, which focuses on the global market, has established a pattern of 4G handsets, but China's 4G development is likely to remain below expectations this year.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information technology released the "June 2014 domestic mobile phone market Operation Analysis Report", the first half of China's 4G mobile phone shipments, although also reached 40.394 million units, but industry and Information Technology department spokesman, chief engineer Zhang Feng in "the first half of 2014 industrial communications Industry Development" In the first half of 2014, China's 4G users were only 13.97 million, the news conference said.

Millet, which only offers 3G handsets, left Samsung and Huawei behind in the second quarter of the Chinese market.

In fact, Huawei's consumer business in a specific region of the market price war, has long been outside the scope of Yu, which has become Huawei consumer business in China, the main reason for the short-lived lean: the product has shifted to 4G, and the market remains in the 3G era.

However, from the end of 2013, the independent Huawei Electric Goods Licensing "Glory", the performance of the rapid, fill the transition period of sales gap.

Xi, China Mobile's chairman, repeatedly said in public that China Mobile's 100,000,004 G user target will remain unchanged this year, and if that goal is reached, Huawei may still be able to play a turnaround in China this year.

Running

The boost in sales has emboldened Huawei to invest more in research and development and marketing.

"At the beginning of the year we set the marketing cost is 350 million yuan, to the second half of our supplementary 100 million yuan." "Shaoyang said. But the bigger one is research and development, and Huawei's consumer business has spent 1 billion of billions of dollars a year on research and development costs in the past two years.

"Chinese handset makers, except Huawei, do not have a company to invest in research and development. "Gang said. And Yu to the "Financial state weekly" reporter's stance is more careless: "Huawei has never been a low-cost company."

The data that can be compared is that Samsung mobile phones in the past two years, marketing costs significantly higher than research and development costs.

A consensus within Huawei's consumer business is that Samsung's competitive advantage, built on a marketing-led basis, cannot be prolonged. Market performance is also validating the Yu team's point of view. In early 2014, Samsung began to cut the marketing costs of mobile phone products, there has been a slowdown around the world, the channel has rebounded and even the news of the anti-water has been seen in the media.

For Yu, the focus of the current Huawei consumer Business management team is still on the quality of the product.

Gang told Caijing National Weekly reporter, Huawei Group rotating CEO Zhijun has specifically found him, made clear that if the quality is not perfect, the more mobile phone sales, the damage to Huawei will be greater.

"According to Huawei's internal regulations, if the quality of the fifth level, you do not want to send a piece of goods, not past the sixth level of quality inspection, you can not bulk shipments." Every shipment must be continuously applied, even to the small Xu Total (zhijun) there to apply. "Huawei Consumer business mobile phone product line Vice President Jie Jin Kam said, in the Huawei Internal, the quality of control has been" relying on the indicators do not rely on face.

In the European market, a clear effect of quality improvement is the increase in profits. "In Europe, mobile phone express cost is very high, a return to pick up mobile phone to get 15 euros, I have a mobile phone to make a few money ah." "Ninhongliang said.

Yu said that he and Lei (the founder of the Millet cell phone), Chen Mingyong (oppo mobile phone founder) is not the same, "they are the boss, many things themselves can be determined, the company is not small, turn the easy." We are part of a Big Mac company with shared platforms and resources, and sometimes there are all kinds of constraints and restrictions, and a lot of things you go too fast and wrestle easily. "