Huawei Technologies has unveiled a new strategy under which the company will focus on providing customized handsets to mobile carriers.
Guo Ping, SVP and president of Huawei's terminal business, said handset customization is now a key differentiator for mobile carriers in the 3G market.
'2G is mainly about voice, but 3G is more on data and multimedia, which requires closer cooperation between equipment vendors and mobile carriers,' Guo said.
One of the major advantages Huawei has in that space, he said, is its close relationship with mobile carriers and expertise in providing 3G infrastructure equipment.
Guo said the handset and terminal division has become a key growth area for Huawei since its inception in 2004, and will reach $1 billion in revenues by the end of this year, accounting for over 9% of total revenues.
Meanwhile, Huawei announced yesterday at ITU Telecom World 2006 the global launch of two new UMTS data cards - the E660 and EC360 - for business professionals.
The E660 HSDPA data card supports a transmission rate up to 7.2 Mbps. The EC360 supports CDMA2000 1x/1xEV-DO Rev.A technology and supports a transmission rate of up to 3.1 Mbps / 1.8Mbps (downlink/uplink).