Huawei stalks Apple and Samsung
REN Zhengfei, the founder of Chinese telecoms behemoth Huawei, likens the company to a ruthless “wolf” tirelessly running down its prey, an ethos that could soon make it the apex predator of the smartphone world.
Despite being essentially barred from the critical US market, Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world’s number two smartphone maker in the second quarter of this year and has market leader Samsung in its sights.
Huawei has achieved this in part by refocusing away from the futile fight for US access and toward gobbling up market share in developing nations with its moderately priced but increasingly sophisticated phones, analysts say.
“Huawei’s image and brand recognition across markets and regions is getting better and better,” said Tarun Pathak of global market analysis firm Counterpoint. “They’ve differentiated and positioned their products across price segments, which makes an interesting conversation in terms of competing with Apple and Samsung.”
Founded by Ren, now 73, with a few thousand dollars in 1987, Huawei focused initially on the backbone hardware for telecommunications networks, growing to become the world leader. Fifteen years after introducing its first phone, Huawei surpassed Apple in the April-June quarter to take second place globally, International Data Corporation (IDC) said last week, the first time since 2010 that Apple was not in the top two. TOLL road operator Transurban more than doubled its profit last financial year helped by Southeast Queensland motorists who are shelling out more than $12 million in weekly tolls.
Transurban yesterday reported revenue from its Queensland toll roads, including the Clem7, Logan Motorway, Gateway and Legacy Way, increased 2.1 per cent to $629 million. Motorists made an average 404,000 daily trips on the tolls roads during that time.
Overall, Transurban’s net profit more than doubled to $468 million for the 2018 financial year, well ahead of analysts’ expectations, and up