Fans of mobile operating systems not called “Android” or ‘iOS” might be sad to hear what Huawei’s head honcho just told the Wall Street Journal. In an interview, Richard Yu spoke about the company’s plans regarding Tizen, Windows Phone and a long-rumored homegrown OS, and basically said they were all doomed. According to the executive, unnamed mobile networks had asked Huawei to make Tizen smartphones, but Yu feels that the platform has “no chance to be successful.” It’s a bit of a u-turn, since the company has previously had a research unit looking into the Samsung-made software, but Yu said that he shut it down.
Huawei Technologies Co. may be unknown to many U.S. consumers, but the Chinese company is becoming a threat to Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest smartphone maker. Huawei’s rise is an indication that growth in the mobile-phone industry is coming mainly from outside China—emerging markets where many consumers are still replacing basic feature phones with smartphones. While China’s increasingly saturated smartphone market is showing signs of slowing growth, Huawei is expanding rapidly in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. As Huawei tries to sell more handsets overseas, among its advantages are its close relationships with mobile carriers around the world. Huawei, whose main business is supplying networking equipment, counts most major telecom operators as its clients. For the past few years, Huawei has been trying to turn its smartphone business into another major source of revenue and profit.
