Huawei banks on R&D to lift consumer electronics profile

Tech company charts plans for an ecosystem of internet of things products

Huawei Technologies Co on Wednesday unveiled several consumer electronic products as the Chinese tech company seeks to grow its non-smartphone business amid United States government restrictions.

The move is part of Huawei's broader push to build an ecosystem of the internet of things products including personal computers, smart televisions, smartwatches, and wireless earbuds to meet consumer demand in all scenarios.

He Gang, chief operating officer of Huawei's consumer business group, said active users of its smart life app has reached 53 million, and it now has more than 600 partners in that respect.

Huawei will step up its push to bring more smart home products to consumers by leveraging the company's advantages in research and development, He said.

At the launch event, Huawei also unveiled its first high-end monitor MateView GT, priced at 4,699 yuan ($730).

The move came after market research company TrendForce's latest report showed that due to the high demand brought by the popularization of work from home and distance education amid the COVID-19 pandemic, monitor shipments reached 140 million units last year, up 8.6 percent on a yearly basis, the highest growth in a decade.

As demand continues into the first half of this year, display shipments in the first quarter of this year increased by 34.1 percent on a yearly basis, with the figure expected to exceed 10 percent during the second quarter of the year.

Total monitor shipments for this year are expected to reach 150 million units, the TrendForce report said.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, said that Huawei's decision to branch into the premium monitor sector showcases its sharp market sense, and its R&D prowess can help it gain a larger presence in the sector.

According to Huawei's data, the company became the second largest manufacturer in China's notebook market last year, with a market share of 16.9 percent, second only to Lenovo Group Ltd, the largest personal computer maker in the world.

In the past two decades, the PC industry has been competing chiefly in hardware. But in the era of internet of things, the pure upgrade of hardware can no longer meet consumers' high demand for intelligence and interconnection. The collaborative innovation of hardware ecology and software ecology has become a clear trend and threshold, and Huawei has an upper hand over rivals in that respect due to its accumulation of telecom technologies, Xiang said.

On Wednesday, Huawei also unveiled its latest PC MateBook 16, and other consumer electronics devices. After Huawei's smartphone business was crippled by the US government restrictions, the company is working hard to find more growth points, experts said.