Dead in America. The Story Behind Phone Makers that Rule the World
Let’s first look at which phone brands are the most popular in each
part of the world. Evidently, Apple and Samsung are everywhere and
govern the global smartphone bazaar, followed by LG, ZTE, Alcatel,
Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. In Europe, besides the big two, Wiko and Huawei
are prevalent. Wiko is a French phone manufacturer, although when I
researched them I discovered they are majority-owned by the Chinese tech
group Tinno Mobile and the Wiko phones are all made in China (in fact,
so are Apple’s, so maybe this is not a big deal). Then there are more
localized players. Turkey has Vestel and General Mobile and Croatia has
Noa.
Huawei, The Chinese Manufacturers and their Ominous Relationship with US
Let’s take Huawei, the world’s third largest phone manufacturer and world’s largest plumber of mobile-phone networks.
Huawei is gigantic globally, but hits the proverbial graveyard here in America. What consumers may not know is that for some reason, our Government still grossly mistrusts Chinese providers when it comes to giving them access to our telecommunication networks. This is fascinating considering the volume of goods we buy in America that are largely made in China. But not this one!
Ostensibly, Huawei has been classified by Congress as a proxy for the Chinese government, for the past several years. This is one issue on which the Democrats and Republicans are both on the same page. Congress does not want to risk giving Huawei access to our networks, suspecting intent to manipulate our national security and participate in economic espionage. Wow.
Huawei is so large that nearly 1 in 3 phones across the planet are connected to its networks. Maybe that’s the reason why Congress is so cautious of them, or maybe our lawmakers worry that Huawei’s global success might ultimately challenge our own tech goliaths. Word from the beltway is that Washington does not want to give Huawei access to our computers, phone lines and wireless networks, since much of America’s economic power and classified military confidences are accessible via this infrastructure.
It is not the first time that American companies have had a problem with Chinese hackers. In fact, some lawmakers to this day appear to be convinced of the fact that Huawei is a Trojan horse with links to the Chinese State. Frankly, I am surprised to learn of any of this, let alone consider it to be true. Maybe we attribute this all to tech protectionism?
So, on this front, US Carriers, that control nearly 90% of sales, have gone the way of Congress and stayed away from Huawei.
The good news is that phone manufacturers like ZTE, Alcatel etc. seem to be doing fine in America being able to sell their phones to our consumers, since these guys have created standalone US centric companies taking decisions locally within the US as opposed to Huawei that is all coordinated from China. So, there’s a chapter Huawei might want to pluck a leaf from. Having said all this, it does appear that ZTE’s networks are in fact not given access to our US networks.
Now let’s take the case of Xiaomi, another Chinese phone manufacturer headquartered in Beijing. It is the world's 5th largest smartphone maker, but with little to no presence in the US and even in Europe. You can get Xiaomi devices from unofficial channels but risk issues of markups, warranty and network incompatibility. Strategists have argued the company should go direct-to-consumer like OnePlus or Huawei's Honor brand has done. However, anybody that knows how phones work in America knows the carriers control nearly all the sales here. So going direct-to-consumer for Xiaomi may not only hurt its brand, it also risks jeopardizing their relationship with US carriers. Besides, any short term gains from direct-to-consumer may not be worth it in the first place. Xiaomi is focused on 30+ developing regions across the world whose markets are larger than our domestic saturated phone market. Lastly, let us not forget that many of these companies, Xiaomi included, do not have the tech resources to create customized devices for each US Carrier, and even more importantly, to go through the elaborate testing process before being able to sell the phones commercially in the US.
Nokia and its Intransigence
Now let’s take the other big manufacturer Nokia, the phone brand that many speak of in Europe, can’t stop prattling about at the annual Mobile World Congress, but one that has been an absolute flop here in the US. Why, because Nokia is so obdurate it simply does not want to make phones that are customized for each US Carrier, and we know for a fact that the Carriers are the ones that rule the US phone market.
I recall when the Windows Phone had launched in the US, when Nokia tied up in some exclusive with AT&T for some time, that also eventually faded. I think AT&T just stopped promoting them. Now admittedly, we do have our nonconformist CDMA standard used by Sprint and Verizon, that have nearly half the nation as their customers.
I would have thought that Nokia would want to make phones that complied with the CDMA standard, given it makes mainly GSM phones, however, Nokia has no interest in making ones for CDMA, not even its latest 3310! It’s happy making low cost Android devices for the mass overseas market and may have given up on America. Or maybe it feels that spending new money on manufacturing a phone to a CDMA standard or to each US Carrier’s specifications is not worth the investment as a function of the likely sales from those new phones in a high-end US market that has already bonded with the Samsung and Apple ecosystems.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dead-america-story-behind-phone-makers-rule-world-anurag-harsh
Huawei, The Chinese Manufacturers and their Ominous Relationship with US
Let’s take Huawei, the world’s third largest phone manufacturer and world’s largest plumber of mobile-phone networks.
Huawei is gigantic globally, but hits the proverbial graveyard here in America. What consumers may not know is that for some reason, our Government still grossly mistrusts Chinese providers when it comes to giving them access to our telecommunication networks. This is fascinating considering the volume of goods we buy in America that are largely made in China. But not this one!
Ostensibly, Huawei has been classified by Congress as a proxy for the Chinese government, for the past several years. This is one issue on which the Democrats and Republicans are both on the same page. Congress does not want to risk giving Huawei access to our networks, suspecting intent to manipulate our national security and participate in economic espionage. Wow.
Huawei is so large that nearly 1 in 3 phones across the planet are connected to its networks. Maybe that’s the reason why Congress is so cautious of them, or maybe our lawmakers worry that Huawei’s global success might ultimately challenge our own tech goliaths. Word from the beltway is that Washington does not want to give Huawei access to our computers, phone lines and wireless networks, since much of America’s economic power and classified military confidences are accessible via this infrastructure.
It is not the first time that American companies have had a problem with Chinese hackers. In fact, some lawmakers to this day appear to be convinced of the fact that Huawei is a Trojan horse with links to the Chinese State. Frankly, I am surprised to learn of any of this, let alone consider it to be true. Maybe we attribute this all to tech protectionism?
So, on this front, US Carriers, that control nearly 90% of sales, have gone the way of Congress and stayed away from Huawei.
The good news is that phone manufacturers like ZTE, Alcatel etc. seem to be doing fine in America being able to sell their phones to our consumers, since these guys have created standalone US centric companies taking decisions locally within the US as opposed to Huawei that is all coordinated from China. So, there’s a chapter Huawei might want to pluck a leaf from. Having said all this, it does appear that ZTE’s networks are in fact not given access to our US networks.
Now let’s take the case of Xiaomi, another Chinese phone manufacturer headquartered in Beijing. It is the world's 5th largest smartphone maker, but with little to no presence in the US and even in Europe. You can get Xiaomi devices from unofficial channels but risk issues of markups, warranty and network incompatibility. Strategists have argued the company should go direct-to-consumer like OnePlus or Huawei's Honor brand has done. However, anybody that knows how phones work in America knows the carriers control nearly all the sales here. So going direct-to-consumer for Xiaomi may not only hurt its brand, it also risks jeopardizing their relationship with US carriers. Besides, any short term gains from direct-to-consumer may not be worth it in the first place. Xiaomi is focused on 30+ developing regions across the world whose markets are larger than our domestic saturated phone market. Lastly, let us not forget that many of these companies, Xiaomi included, do not have the tech resources to create customized devices for each US Carrier, and even more importantly, to go through the elaborate testing process before being able to sell the phones commercially in the US.
Nokia and its Intransigence
Now let’s take the other big manufacturer Nokia, the phone brand that many speak of in Europe, can’t stop prattling about at the annual Mobile World Congress, but one that has been an absolute flop here in the US. Why, because Nokia is so obdurate it simply does not want to make phones that are customized for each US Carrier, and we know for a fact that the Carriers are the ones that rule the US phone market.
I recall when the Windows Phone had launched in the US, when Nokia tied up in some exclusive with AT&T for some time, that also eventually faded. I think AT&T just stopped promoting them. Now admittedly, we do have our nonconformist CDMA standard used by Sprint and Verizon, that have nearly half the nation as their customers.
I would have thought that Nokia would want to make phones that complied with the CDMA standard, given it makes mainly GSM phones, however, Nokia has no interest in making ones for CDMA, not even its latest 3310! It’s happy making low cost Android devices for the mass overseas market and may have given up on America. Or maybe it feels that spending new money on manufacturing a phone to a CDMA standard or to each US Carrier’s specifications is not worth the investment as a function of the likely sales from those new phones in a high-end US market that has already bonded with the Samsung and Apple ecosystems.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dead-america-story-behind-phone-makers-rule-world-anurag-harsh
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