Tags: Internet, Mobile Phone Industry, Technology Industry
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – Chinese electronics firm Huawei has officially announced its intentions to compete directly in the Filipino consumer electronics market.
During a meeting with local media, Huawei executives said the company will introduce more mobile phones and tablet PCs in the coming months.
Unknown to many, Huawei has had product presence in the Philippines; it started out making OEM (original equipment manufacturer) devices for local telecommunications firms like Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.
Huawei presented their strategies in the Philippines, particularly in the tablet PC business. Instead of introducing mobile phones to launch their consumer market division, the company introduced its MediaPad, a 7-inch tablet PC that runs Google’s Android 3.2 (or Honeycomb) operating system.
Huawei has existing phone models sold through local partners, including the Ideos U8150, one of the cheapest Android phones in the country.
“But what we also want to sell directly to the market. We’re hoping to tap the young social networking sector in the Philippines as they have the ability to discern products for their needs,” said Emerald Dimapilis, Huawei Devices Philippines Terminal Marketing Manager.
Huawei, in particular, wants to strengthen its market presence for its mid- to high-end market products, despite the saturation of existing mobile handset and tablet PC brands in the Philippines.
“The market is big enough for a lot of players in the mobile and tablet PC space especially as more people are using their devices for more than just phone calls and text messaging. Soon, we’ll be launching other mobile phones that will cater to local markets’ needs,” Dimapilis said in an interview.
The Huawei MediaPad has a 1.2 gigahertz Qualcomm dual core processor, a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear camera, an 8 gigabyte internal memory that is expandable to 32 Gb via a microSD slot, and a type-D HDMI slot.
One added feature of the MediaPad is a SIM slot, similar to the original Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch that was launched in late 2010. However, this could not make any phone calls or text messages and can only transmit Internet data.
No price is set yet for the MediaPad but Huawei said that it could be in the range of around P20,000.
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