Huawei Phones

[hyperdimension]

Huawei is now the world's 3rd largest smartphone vendor: Huawei becomes world's 3rd largest smartphone vendor. Are they popular in Thailand? They could be much better value for money than the established big-name brands. How do they compare with the popular i-mobile phones here? Please share your experiences with Huawei phones.

[happysanook]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

[thaicbr]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

I believe that the only Huawei phones sold here in any numbers were rebranded and sold as WellCom phones.

Edited February 6, 2013 by thaicbr

[happysanook]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

I believe that the only Huawei phones sold here in any numbers were rebranded and sold as WellCom phones.

Much to Thailand's loss. Huawei puts out some excellent, well-priced phones... AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket to name a few, all sell Huawei phones on contract.

On another note, I was speaking with a previous Wellcom dealer (kad suan kaew, ground floor), and they've moved onto K-Touch. I'm not sure if it's all Wellcom dealers in Thailand or just this one dealer...Or perhaps Huawei let Wellcom go and got in cahoots with K-Touch... Who knows for sure...Regardless, you can't find new Wellcom phones there anymore.

[jocko]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

I believe that the only Huawei phones sold here in any numbers were rebranded and sold as WellCom phones.

I have the Huawei Assend 300 bought in the UK and have bought the wife the I mobile q4a on the ground floor at big c and I am pretty sure I saw the Huawei 300 for sale in there as I remember comparing the price to the UK price it was about the same I recall.

To answer the OP on comparison the i-mobile has 2 advantages over the Huawei Dual sims and front and back camera the Huawei has back camera so not so good for video calls in general I think the I mobile is better value.

[happysanook]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

I believe that the only Huawei phones sold here in any numbers were rebranded and sold as WellCom phones.

I have the Huawei Assend 300 bought in the UK and have bought the wife the I mobile q4a on the ground floor at big c and I am pretty sure I saw the Huawei 300 for sale in there as I remember comparing the price to the UK price it was about the same I recall.

To answer the OP on comparison the i-mobile has 2 advantages over the Huawei Dual sims and front and back camera the Huawei has back camera so not so good for video calls in general I think the I mobile is better value.

You are talking about models...Not brand... The chipset in the G300 is old. Qualcomm has finally caught on and offered "budget" CPUs with Dual-SIM (Snapdragon S4 Play). Most any model Huawei puts out now that's worth talking about have a front camera and dual-SIM. The G330 or G600 are in the 6-9k baht range and worth taking a good look at.

[hyperdimension]

The Huawei IDEOS X3 seemed to have got some good reviews and was around last year, selling for under 4k baht:

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/smartphones/huawei/ideos-x3-android-smartphone-p008253/

http://www.welltechgroup.co.th/products/viewproduct.php?id=3477

http://itplaza.co.th/board_reply.php?type_id=7&ques_id=247&page=11

http://www.manager.co.th/CBizReview/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9550000034690

http://www.studiophone.co.th/web/product.php?id=1872

So what happened?

I can't find them on the floor map of the Thailand Mobile Expo 2013 that has started today (whilst Samsung has 6 rooms/booths):

It's a little strange for the world's 3rd largest smartphone vendor, who now even out-ranks Nokia, HTC and Blackberry maker Research In Motion!

[jocko]

Huawei is generally considered a step up from i-Mobile... Huawei is international and sold in the Western world, while i-mobile is a Thai brand.

I believe that the only Huawei phones sold here in any numbers were rebranded and sold as WellCom phones.

I have the Huawei Assend 300 bought in the UK and have bought the wife the I mobile q4a on the ground floor at big c and I am pretty sure I saw the Huawei 300 for sale in there as I remember comparing the price to the UK price it was about the same I recall.

To answer the OP on comparison the i-mobile has 2 advantages over the Huawei Dual sims and front and back camera the Huawei has back camera so not so good for video calls in general I think the I mobile is better value.

You are talking about models...Not brand... The chipset in the G300 is old. Qualcomm has finally caught on and offered "budget" CPUs with Dual-SIM (Snapdragon S4 Play). Most any model Huawei puts out now that's worth talking about have a front camera and dual-SIM. The G330 or G600 are in the 6-9k baht range and worth taking a good look at.

Of course i am talking about the models i'v got i am no expert on the latest phones i was just giving my input the op will read all the posts im sure

[hyperdimension]

I have the Huawei Assend 300 bought in the UK and have bought the wife the I mobile q4a on the ground floor at big c and I am pretty sure I saw the Huawei 300 for sale in there as I remember comparing the price to the UK price it was about the same I recall.

The Huawei Ascend G300 seems well priced at under 5k baht: Huawei Ascend G300. Though operating system is Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Would it be upgradeable to version 4 or higher?

Edited February 7, 2013 by hyperdimension

[jocko]

I have the Huawei Assend 300 bought in the UK and have bought the wife the I mobile q4a on the ground floor at big c and I am pretty sure I saw the Huawei 300 for sale in there as I remember comparing the price to the UK price it was about the same I recall.

The Huawei Ascend G300 seems well priced at under 5k baht: Huawei Ascend G300. Though operating system is Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Would it be upgradeable to version 4 or higher?

My phone has 4.0.3 installed I bought this phone on eBay in the UK unlocked with the latest software etc

[lomatopo]

Huawei would have to set up a local subsidiary, or have some sort of local partnership. Then localize any models they'd want to sell here. Then push their way into the multi-tiered distribution channels here. That does require a fairly large investment. Maybe they are focusing on other emerging markets? They do sell a ton of telecom gear here so I assume they do have a local sub. or partner, but that type of business - direct sales to service providers - is quite a bit different than mass-market, consumer-oriented retail distribution.

According to the Mobile Expo link it looks like TTDG, some sort of Thai distributor, has some Huawei gear: tablets, aircards, MiFi devices.

[happysanook]

Huawei would have to set up a local subsidiary, or have some sort of local partnership. Then localize any models they'd want to sell here. Then push their way into the multi-tiered distribution channels here. That does require a fairly large investment. Maybe they are focusing on other emerging markets? They do sell a ton of telecom gear here so I assume they do have a local sub. or partner, but that type of business - direct sales to service providers - is quite a bit different than mass-market, consumer-oriented retail distribution.

According to the Mobile Expo link it looks like TTDG, some sort of Thai distributor, has some Huawei gear: tablets, aircards, MiFi devices.

Yes, it's a big undertaking... And of course Thailand would have to "allow" it. The Wellcom brand indeed has some re-branded Huawei phones as CBR pointed out, but I'm not sure if Wellcom is Huawei in Thailand or if Wellcom is a separate entity entirely that has an agreement with Huawei and they just slap their label on some OEM Huawei phones. I'm guessing it's the latter....

I mentioned in an earlier post that the Wellcom shop in kad suan kaew has now switched over to K-Touch, but again, I'm not sure if it's a separate entity that's just decided to sell K-Touch instead of Huawei, or if Wellcom has gone out of business, or if it's just this one shop that has decided to sell K-Touch instead of Wellcom / Huawei. Anybody still see Wellcom phones recently for sale new? Not the business name, but actual new phones being sold with Wellcom branding?

[lomatopo]

They could be much better value for money than the established big-name brands.

Herein lies the challenge(s).

I forgot to mention: translations, service, support, marketing, advertising, spiffs, spare parts, repair, training, 'incentivizing' the channels (read discounts), channel conflict, ad infinitum. All for a lot lower gross margin. Yep, can't make up a loss by selling more.

And service providers may avoid these lower margin products as purchasers are likely to be pre-paid and average 100 baht ARPU. Better to fold in lower margin/priced products from established suppliers?

[hyperdimension]

translations, service, support, marketing, advertising, spiffs, spare parts, repair, training, 'incentivizing' the channels (read discounts), channel conflict, ad infinitum. All for a lot lower gross margin. Yep, can't make up a loss by selling more.

And service providers may avoid these lower margin products as purchasers are likely to be pre-paid and average 100 baht ARPU. Better to fold in lower margin/priced products from established suppliers?

They are valid points. I don't know Huawei's margins nor the costs of setting all those things up here in Thailand, so I don't know whether they would in fact make a loss if they tried. Maybe they could cut some of the costs, such as marketing & advertising, as the low retail prices could be enough to attract very high demand.

I've just come back from a Myanmar trip and Huawei phones are quite popular there (as are the other big-name brands). I wonder how many things on your list the company have actually implemented in Myanmar. I don't think they've done translations, as it seems that people there get by using English language on their phones.

[happysanook]

Its just a guess, but likely there's little to no support structure at all in Myanmar. They probably just import them from China.

Thai language has already been ported to Android. The manufacturer only need include it in the ROM.

Carrier support is a non issue as well. The manufacturer only need include the radios for Thai bands which are in many huawei phones already.

The main issue is setting up logisitics for distribution and service centers, which can be farmed out to existing 3rd party service centers.

As mentioned several times already, wellcom sells rebranded huawei phones, but not sure if wellcom is huawei under a different name or if wellcom is rebranding huawei OEMs.

[thaicbr]

Its just a guess, but likely there's little to no support structure at all in Myanmar. They probably just import them from China.

Thai language has already been ported to Android. The manufacturer only need include it in the ROM.

Carrier support is a non issue as well. The manufacturer only need include the radios for Thai bands which are in many huawei phones already.

The main issue is setting up logisitics for distribution and service centers, which can be farmed out to existing 3rd party service centers.

As mentioned several times already, wellcom sells rebranded huawei phones, but not sure if wellcom is huawei under a different name or if wellcom is rebranding huawei OEMs.

Wellcom rebrand Huawei.

[lomatopo]

Thai language has already been ported to Android. The manufacturer only need include it in the ROM.

Carrier support is a non issue as well. The manufacturer only need include the radios for Thai bands which are in many huawei phones already.

Re: translations, I was referring to all of the printed material (user's manual, warranty, sales & marketing) rather than the Android UI/OS. Presumably you'd want any print/TV ads to be in Thai?

Service provider support means (not GSM/3G frequencies): a lot of hardware gets sold through this channel, so they need to invest in sales/marketing, promotions/incentives, service, support, spares, repair, ad infinitum. They could sell one, single iPhone and make more margin, and snag a post-paid, high ARPU customer. Or sell, 25+ Huawei phones, to pre-paid, low-ARPU customers? I assume you get the point?

Edited February 8, 2013 by lomatopo

[snooky]

Lazada now selling some models altho still not the top ones which could be rivals to many of the top models sold by Apple, Galaxy, Nokia & Sony.

[jackspratt]

I recently bought a Huawei Ascend G300+ in Oz (A$100 or ~3000 baht) for use (mainly) in Thailand.

Excellent phone, with the big advantage of tri-band on 3G (850/900/2100). Easily upgraded (via the Huawei website) from Gingerbread to ICS.

Will be even better if/when we get real 3G in the sticks of Udon Thani.

[lomatopo]

It looks like DTAC are selling three new Huawei models: Mousey, Joey, Cheetah as part of their Tri-NET launch.

http://droidsans.com/preview-dtac-trinet-mousey-joey-cheetah

[dddave]

Huawei G200 & G300 on sale at the large mobile store to the left of the entrance of Power Buy in Central World, Bangkok.

BTW, this shop has a nice display explaining which phone models & providers cover which bands for 3 & 4G