Over the past decade or two, I have watched the United States first welcome, then get harsh with Huawei, the wireless network builder from China. Fear that data which travelled over their gear could be seen by the Chinese government. Even though Huawei repeatedly said that does not happen, fear won out and Huawei was ordered out of the United States. Not only that, but in several other countries as well. It was thought that this was the end of the Huawei threat. Then something surprising happened.
After a period of reorganizing, today Huawei seems to be back on track and stronger than ever as one of the world’s strongest, fast-growing and resilient competitors in the wireless networking space.
How could that be? You would think being banned in the United States and several other countries would be a huge blow for Huawei.
So then, why is Huawei now doing so well?
Huawei competitors like Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, Sony, IBM and more
There are many competitors in the Huawei space, large and small like Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, MediaTek, Intel, AMD, Samsung, Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom, Sony, IBM, NXP, TSMC, Skyworks, Qorvo, Global Foundries, Marvell, Unisoc, Infineon, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, STMicroelectronics, Renesas Electronics, Murata Manufacturing, On Semiconductor, Amphenol, Microchip Technology, Micron, Applied Materials and countless others along with wireless, telecom, AI and other new technologies.
In fact, it appears Huawei is still stronger than many, if not most of their top competitors.
With all this competition, you would think that when the USA and other global markets were no longer available, Huawei would struggle.
They did for a while, but apparently that was only a short-term struggle. Today, they are showing growth once again.
This kind of tenuous episode tends to make companies stronger in the long run. And that is what I believe is happening at Huawei.
Huawei has enormous world-wide marketplace
You see, Huawei, like other wireless network builders have an enormous, worldwide marketplace. The United States and a few other countries are important, but they are only a few slices of the larger pie.
Every country uses wireless. And all wireless needs to be continually upgraded on a regular basis, from 4G to 5G and beyond.
Plus, with new technology like Artificial Intelligence and more, the growth wave will potentially continue for all competitors in the space.
Plus, helping other businesses in other industries move into wireless to transform themselves and gain a competitive advantage is another new growth opportunity.
Price is one reason. It is said Huawei undercuts their competition on price to win contracts and countries.
Innovation is another reason. Huawei is a regular contributor with new ideas and technology.
Security is not as big an issue at some countries compared to others. Obviously, in the United States and other major opposing countries, the security threat level is higher than with smaller countries.
How USA and China differ with regards to privacy, security and secrecy
Let’s take a closer look at the rub between the USA and Huawei. Simply put, Chinese companies are different compared to US companies. In fact, China is different compared to the US.
That does not mean either side is bad, just different in comparison.
In the United States, companies are separate from the government. USA companies make it on their own, or they fail. Of course, there are plenty of companies too big to fail. In these cases, the government can help them through rough periods. Sound familiar?
In China, if the government thinks a company with a technology that is important to the future of the country, they do everything they can to build them up and protect them from failing.
Huawei is not a small-time player. In fact, they are a giant in the wireless space. That means they are too big to fail.
The USA and China are more similar than most realize
As hard as it is to believe, it sounds like both the USA and China are on a similar page in this regard, doesn’t it?
Example, aren’t industry leaders like Qualcomm too big and too important to fail?
So, the next question is, will the United States and China ever settle their differences?
Not all companies or sectors face this troublesome issue. Plenty of people and companies in the United States do business with Chinese companies. That has not changed.
So, apparently, in the US it is OK to do business with China, as long as it is not in a sensitive industry or sector where privacy is an issue?
As you can see, things can get a little bit confusing.
No privacy or control over personal data
Now let me ask you an important question. The problem seems to be lack of privacy and control of our data.
The fact is China openly watches their population through cameras and other tracking technology watching everything from every person. As creepy as this sounds to us, this is just the way things are in China. This is not wrong, just different. This is the world we live in today.
China makes no secret about this practice. In China, everybody knows the government is always watching. That is a fact that is out in the open. People do not like it, but it not evil, it’s just the way they think and operate over there.
The USA and China are more similar than we realize
Now, here is some information which may be uncomfortable. We freedom and privacy loving Americans are subject to the same privacy invasion we complain about with China.
The same thing is happening here in the USA. We think we have privacy, but we are fooling ourselves. We used to. Not any longer.
I have written about this for decades. The fact of the matter is that everything we say, every email or text message we send, every page on the web we visit, every place we go in our cars and everything we do are all tracked and recorded forever, in giant server farms.
That means both the USA and China know every step we take every day. So, we are not really that different, are we?
Perhaps there is a difference in the reason this is done from country to country. Who knows for sure.
However, that may be why Huawei is still going strong, on a worldwide basis, even after the USA ordered them out.
Huawei still has plenty of other countries worldwide who trust them, like their lower pricing and will keep fueling the growth of this company going forward.
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