back to article Huawei mystery memo (and phone strategy) confirmed

Last weekend Huawei’s flagship P10 (and P10 Plus) smartphones went on sale in the UK, with support from all four major operators for the first time. Huawei UK boasts that it was the only Mobile World Congress launch to get across-the-board support – something LG and Sony had failed to do. Huawei has been more or less the world …

  1. tiggity Silver badge

    premium prices

    I have been vetoing laptops as being a bit too expensive that were less than those prices for a phone.

    Must be a lot of marketing budget to reclaim

  2. gv

    Words to live by

    “In the end it’s not marketing that makes your success. It’s product and service."

    There are quite a few companies that should adopt this paradigm.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Words to live by

      it’s not marketing that makes your success. It’s product and service: There are quite a few companies that should adopt this paradigm.

      Why? Evidence from many markets is that it is a case of "feel the width, not the quality". I work in the energy sector, where supplier standards are lousy, there is (contrary to what most people assume) a clear and measurable difference in service standards, but that won't trump low prices. So investing in service and quality puts your costs up, but above a basic minimum doesn't reduce churn. And if your service is rubbish (eg npower) then you just run a marketing campaign and a loss-leading tariff to sign up a few 100k customers because they value low price over service.

      Same with phones, and just as Huawei are eating Samsung's profits from the bottom up, so some other Chinese maker will soon eat Huawei's business bottom up. You'd be correct that quality product and service are a differentiated proposition, but they are difficult to make a success of unless you're the only one offering it in the market. like Apple, and even then you need to try and ring fence your proposition and maximise the switch-out costs.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "only spending on marketing what it could afford, and expressed a preference "

    Let face it, it has a lot to spend

    ".....as the consumer unit took $711 million for branding purposes,"

    "... was up only 0.4 percent to the equivalent of $5.3 billion in 2016. "

    http://pocketnow.com/2017/04/03/huawei-profit-growth-fail

  4. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Last two paragraphs lost in translation?

    For the premium phones, the P series and the Mate, Huawei offers a three-year warranty and gives the buyer three months to return the phone “if you have problems,” said Mr Ji.

    “If it’s broken you can’t. But this is significantly appreciated by the consumer who might have worries. You have no worries. This demonstrates our confidence that consumers will like the high quality.”

    If it's broken I can't what? Return it? I'd bloody hope I could. Statutory consumer rights and all that.

    Perhaps it was Scarlett Johansson's fault.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Last two paragraphs lost in translation?

      I didn't understand "broken" as "defective", rather as in "you broke it, you pay for it".

    2. jmch Silver badge

      Re: Last two paragraphs lost in translation?

      "If it's broken I can't what? Return it? I'd bloody hope I could. Statutory consumer rights and all that."

      I suppose what is meant is that you can't return it if YOU broke it (eg dropping from a height, or into water).

      Statutory rights vary by country, but typically include a 1- or 2-year repair/replacement guarantee. What I understand here is if anything goes wrong in the first 3 months, you can return the phone for a full refund, which is over and above the statutory guarantee.

      Can any Huawei owner confirm or correct?

      1. druck Silver badge

        Re: Last two paragraphs lost in translation?

        Well our au-pair had her brand new P10's screen cracked by airport security at Stanstead, so we'll try and argue it didn't stand up to reasonable wear and tear by MAG's hairless apes.

    3. Peter2 Silver badge

      Re: Last two paragraphs lost in translation?

      Presumably they mean "if it's broken you can't return it" in terms of:-

      "it just stopped working, honest. <2 minutes later> How did you know that I dropped it in the bath?" which isn't covered under a warranty anyway. Presumably they mean that if you think it's crap then you can just take it back within 3 months provided that you haven't destroyed it, which is a reasonable sales pitch.

  5. Your alien overlord - fear me

    "English-speaking punters would never be able to wrap their tongues around the pronunciation"

    Easy - pronounce as "who are we?" but as one word, no pauses.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Easy - pronounce as "who are we?" but as one word, no pauses."

      Close but wrong :(

      Listen to the following:

      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Huawei_pronunciation.ogg

      More like W (as in Wednesday) Har (as in Hard) Way ..... with more emphasis on the 'Way'

      [From the 'Ladybird 'Popup' Book of Phonetics' available real soon !!! :) ]

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can only hope that....

    ..the phones are a lot better than that utterly rubbish "proverb" that is informing their business strategy.

    As far as I could tell, it seems to be "when you're in a hole, keep digging".

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: I can only hope that....

      > utterly rubbish "proverb"

      There is a legend about the political formation of the civilisation-state we call China beginning with a shared effort to tame a river for mutual benefit. Thousands of years ago. Presumably the proverb makes more sense to someone versed in the Chinese culture.

      You wouldn't expect a Chinese person to immediately understand what you meant if you referred to the little boy who stuck his finger in a dike (or literal translation thereof), would you?

  7. Blotto Silver badge

    Marketing

    If they don't market their product how am i meant to know about it and include them in my purchasing decision.

    If i'm looking at phones in apples price range why would i buy some phone from a manufacturer i've never heard off & don't know anyone that's ever used one. If celebs are using the brand its likely to be in the press, on tv and people are likely to be talking about it. If i've heard about the brand, seen people using it and its in the shop when i go for an iPhone i'm likely to take a look. That's why marketing is needed. the sooner Mr Ren gets it the better for Who Are We or WahWe or whatever.

  8. vcayenne
    Facepalm

    I found myself bothered by the analyst quote and actually went to the referenced piece, only to find that he indeed wrote: "I remain unconvinced that Huawei does not have…". What a sorry (non-)command of language.

  9. Named coward

    Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (left). Not sure who the other chap is

    Best. Caption. Ever.

    1. Gio Ciampa

      Re: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (left). Not sure who the other chap is

      Isn't he the World Multitasking Champion...?

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