Huawei plans to release first PC as it eyes bite of Apple's share

Huawei products at an information industry expo in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

Telecom giant eyeing enterprise market to boost sales, catch up with close rival Apple

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is likely to release its first personal computer next month, as part of the tech firm's plan to catch up with Apple Inc in revenue.

What will be interesting would be to see if the world's biggest telecom equipment maker is able to translate its success story in smartphones market to the PC sector, where demand is languishing in major markets.

Huawei is working with chipmaker Intel Corp on a PC that is scheduled to be unveiled in February, Shanghai-based news site yicai.com said on Monday. The report did not disclose what kind of device the Shenzhen, Guangdong-based vendor will launch.

Huawei sources said on condition of anonymity that the company may release at least one tablet device at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next month. The sources said the matter is confidential and there "might" be an announcement regarding the PC business during the event, but nothing has been decided yet.

Nicole Peng, research director of Canalys China, a market research firm based in Shanghai, said Huawei may choose to enter the PC market even if it is hard to attain profits immediately.

But Huawei will also need to overcome a series of challenges to make the PC idea work. said Peng.

"The PC market, including tablets, is undergoing a tough time with even Apple seeing stagnant tablet sales," Peng said, adding the enterprise market could be more important to Huawei as there are still considerable revenue opportunities.

"But Huawei needs to leverage the business-to-business channel to sell PCs instead of using the current retail channel, ... A big challenge for them," according to Peng.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 71.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, representing a 10.6 percent year-on-year decline, according to industry consultancy International Data Corp. The weakening demand coupled with currency fluctuations negatively impacted PC shipments last year.

"This year is likely to remain difficult for the industry, as the current gloomy economic outlook with uncertainty in the financial markets in China affecting multiple countries will weigh on IT spending in the near future", said Maciek Gornicki, Asia Pacific research manager for client devices at IDC.

Huawei may attempt to tap high-end businessmen for PC sales to keep a profit margin and premium laptop/tablet convertibles similar to Microsoft Corp's Surface product line could be a reasonable device for the company.

Huawei's consumer unit is mainly driven by smartphone sales while Apple has a full spectrum of products ranging from smartphones to desktop PCs.