TMCnet News
Networks can't handle Huawei's 'fastest smartphone' [Seven Days (United Arab Emirates)](Seven Days (United Arab Emirates) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Chinese telecoms firm Huawei has launched what it is calling the “the fastest smartphone in the world” as it looks to spread awareness of its brand across the globe. The company is hoping to cash in on its new gadget and the recently acquired tag of the world’s third-largest maker of smartphones. The new phone, the Ascend P2, will have a 4.7 inch screen. It is set for release in the second quarter of this year for about $525 without a contract. It’s the “fastest” because it supports faster download speeds than other phones. However, analysts noted that wireless networks aren’t equipped to supply those speeds. However, parts of the presentation of the phone at a press conference in Barcelona suggest the company has some way to go in polishing its pitch for a global audience. Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group said the new phone can be programmed to display more than 100 different “themes”, or looks. This is important because “ladies like flowers [and] colourful things,” Yu said. Yu also said Huawei is learning from Apple how to make Google’s Android software easier to use, a lawsuit-friendly utterance considering that Apple is on a global campaign to sue makers of Android phones for copying from the iPhone. Huawei Technologies was the world’s third-largest seller of smartphones, after Samsung and Apple, in the fourth quarter of last year, according to research firm IDC. That’s despite selling very few phones in the US, where the big phone companies mostly ignore it. It has a much better position in Europe, where cellphone companies have embraced its network equipment, and France’s Orange is committed to selling the phone. In the US, a congressional panel recommended in October that phone carriers avoid doing business with Huawei or its Chinese rival, ZTE Corp, for fear that its equipment could contain “back doors” that enable access to communications from outside. The Chinese government claims the report is an effort to block Chinese firms from the US market. “It has not been an easy journey for us,” Huawei’s global brand director, Amy Lou, said of the company’s quest to become globally recognised and trusted. She called the company “a great consumer brand in the making.” (c) 2013 Al Sidra Media LLC Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |