Huawei chases Xiaomi, makes a move on India

Pan Xu

Following the news of China’s largest smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi saying it would manufacture its India-bound smartphones in India, Huawei has now announced it will produce some of its smartphones in India as well.

Taking its first steps in India, Huawei promoted its flagship Honor 7 product in the country by hosting a press conference last in New Delhi last week.

First unveiled in Beijing in 2015, Huawei’s Honor 7 was said to include a series of new features and functions. The most important feature for the Honor 7 is the Zhiling Button, or the wisdom spirit button, which allows users to voice control the phone, providing a holistic life assistant.

Indian local newspaper, the Economic times, reported on Sunday that over 300 Huawei engineers are developing india-customized Honor handsets at Huawei’s research center in Bangalore. It was also reported the company plans to set up a product research and development center in Sriperumbudur, a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Zhao Gang, Vice President of International Business for the Huawei Honor said that India is the most important overseas market for the Honor smartphone.

Huawei hires 7000 engineers globally with 3000 of those engineers stationed in Bangalore.

Huawei’s move to enter the Indian market is partly a threat to primary rival, Xiaomi. A year ago Xiaomi announced its plan to establish a design base as well as an R&D center in Bangalore. As a sign of its commitment, Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun, moved the launching ceremony of Xiaomi’s Mi4i from Beijing to New Delhi in April.

Huawei sold 2.99 million handsets globally in the second quarter, 2015, making it the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world behind Samsung and Apple according to IDC.

 

Edited by Rohan Malhotra

Pan Xu is a guest writer at AllChinaTech.

 

(Featured photo from PConline)