Devices, enterprise drive Huawei's first-half revenues

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. said its revenues grew 11% in the first half of the year, to $15.38 billion, while operating profit reached $1.94 billion. The privately held Chinese company released the information in a press release, but did not release overall profit figures.
The company said it is on track to meet its goal of $31.2 billion in sales this year, driven by its devices and enterprise business. Interestingly, Huawei noted that while it traditionally has focused on selling telecom equipment to global operators, it is “transforming into an integrated ICT solutions vendor to capitalize on the significant growth presented by this market.
“Huawei’s performance in the first half of 2011 was in line with our expectations, while growth was stable and robust,” said Cathy Meng, CFO at Huawei. “Although the global economy continues to face uncertainty, we remain confident in achieving our annual sales target of CNY 199 billion with our Device and Enterprise businesses as new growth drivers.”
In the wireless space, the company noted it deployed a multimode SingleRAN solution that supports LTE and WiMAX, and helped Saudi Arabian operator Mobily deploy a TD-LTE/WiMAX commercial network. Huawei said it deployed more than 130 SingleRAN networks The company did not break out sales for the infrastructure business.
In devices, Huawei said shipments increased 40% year-over-year to 72 million units. The handset business grew by more than 100%, driven by smartphone sales, with its Android-based smartphones ranking among the top five globally.
Huawei’s devices business is embarking on a campaign to move from being a white-labeled device manufacturer to one that will try to brand the Huawei name globally, one executive said during an executive event following the CDMA World Forum held in Guangzhou, China, in June. The process of developing its own brand will take years, but the company realizes it needs to start with a single step, said Victor Xu, director of marketing development at Huawei. The company has ambitious plans to be in the top five world’s largest device manufacturers by 2013, Xu said, laying out a multi-year strategy. Huawei also wants to lead in M2M communications in the connect home and keep its lead in mobile broadband products.
Huawei established its Enterprise Business Operation Center, actively promoting the ICT transformation of the enterprise market early this year. The company said it shipped more than 500 Telepresence systems, expanding its business into more than 100 countries. Huawei also noted it introduced new cloud-computing business models, focusing on visual media and healthcare.