The Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies has beaten one time favorites of Nokia, Research in Motion, Sony and LG Electronics to become the world’s No. 3 behind Apple and Samsung Electronics. The world’s No. 1 and 2 together accounts for 54 percent of the global market share in smartphones. Huawei reportedly make $23 billion sales a year and growing at 3.5 percent per year.
Huawei Technologies was started in 1987 and made telecom gear for phone companies. Only in 2000 that the company start to make cell phones. They entered the smartphone production in 2009. Within short few years they became world’s No. 3 due to competitive pricing and good products. They were able to cut cost by putting Android operating system in their phones rather than trying to invent their own operating system. Their products are capturing the market share in China, Middle East and Africa. They expect to manufacture 60 million smartphones in 2012. They supply phones to Metro PCS and recently signed a contract with AT&T.
The company’s sudden explosion has some governments worried. The Australian government banned them from bidding on a national broadband project. The U.S. Congress is evaluating the security risk they pose to the nation and its ties to Iran.