Let’s be honest, Huawei isn’t a household name in the U.S. for smartphones the way Samsung and Apple are. The company has a long road ahead of it when it decides to actively focus on the smartphone market in the United States. It’s going to have to build that brand recognition and bring in customers with devices that can hold their own against rivals from Apple and Samsung. Huawei certainly wants to do all of that, in fact the company actually wants to be one of the top three smartphone vendors in the country.
Word of this aim comes straight from Zhiqiang Xu himself who is the President of USA devices at the company, he was speaking today in an interview today with Greenbot.
Huawei has already cemented its position as a dominant player in the Chinese smartphone market, it’s home ground, research estimates that the company sold some 68 million smartphones in China last year.
Since the U.S. market is heavily controlled by carriers Huawei hasn’t been able to replicate that success in the U.S., according to Xu, the company will certainly needs carrier support if it wants customers in the country to purchase its devices.
Xu does say that the company is working with AT&T and Sprint, as well as Verizon and T-Mobile. The relationship between them might not be based on smartphones right now but they’re the carriers that Huawei will focus the most on.
The company does directly sell its smartphones to U.S. customers through GetHuawei online store, the selection is very limited, but it’s a step in the right direction.