WCA March 2014

From the Americas

Neither firm has won a major network equipment contract in the US, a market wide open to Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Solutions and Networks, and Samsung. Both Huawei and ZTE do have relatively strong handset businesses in the US. Mr Goldstein also pointed out that, despite being effectively shut out of the US network gear market, Huawei has still managed to flourish in overseas markets including Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Indeed, according to ABI Research, for the third quarter of 2013 Huawei ranked number one in global RAN market share at 28.1 per cent, up 3.8 per cent from the year-earlier quarter. Ericsson was number two with 21.8 per cent. ❖ Recalling Huawei’s long time and fruitless effort to break into the US domestic networks market, Mr Warwick of TelecomTV.One observed that how much of the company’s sudden capitulation is “just sour grapes . . . remains to be seen.” But in his interview with Les Echos, Mr Ren sounded very like a man delivering a parting shot. “Anyway, our phones are selling very well in the US,” the Huawei CEO reminded the French journalists. “They can’t say our phones also have security problems, right? That’s because the software is American, and not ours [an apparent nod to Google’s Android, which powers most of Huawei’s smartphones]. We do not have an operating system. We do things reasonably.” ❖ Also on 4 th December, Scott M Fulton III of Network Computing pointed out a potential consequence of a withdrawal by Huawei from the American market: “If a US exit does actually come, it could embolden both lawmakers and competitive manufacturers worldwide to use the fear of global espionage as a successful marketing and campaigning tactic.” Elsewhere in telecom . . . ❖ According to data from the Internet analytics company comScore , Apple is still the top smartphone maker in the US with more than 40 per cent of the market, although Android is the top mobile operating system (OS). As of November 2013, Android’s share of the global smartphone market, led by products made by Samsung of South Korea, has reached 80 per cent. As reported by Chloe Albanesius on PCMag.com (6 th December), comScore saw Apple with 40.6 per cent of the US smartphone market for the three months ended October 2013, up just 0.2 per cent from July. Samsung came in at number two at 25.4 per cent, up 1.3 per cent; followed by Motorola (seven per cent), Taiwan’s HTC (6.7 per cent), and South Korea’s LG (6.6 per cent). All five companies had recent smartphone releases. But Samsung, Motorola, HTC and LG have an Android-dominated line-up, putting Android at the top of comScore ’s list of smartphone platforms with 52.2 per cent of the market. Tracking its smartphone numbers, Apple landed at 40.6 per cent, up 0.2 per cent, followed far behind by the struggling BlackBerry (Canadian) and the Windows Phone from Microsoft. Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor

According to several buy-side sources, the bulk of hot rolled mills were holding the line at $680 a ton. One service centre executive said that, although occasional lower-priced deals could be had, the US market overall was “pretty strong sideways.” ❖ Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and General Electric Co have agreed to settle all their patent infringement lawsuits concerning wind turbine technology in the US by granting cross-licensing to each other. According to a statement issued by the Japanese company on 15th December in Tokyo, Mitsubishi Heavy and GE – the largest US producer of wind turbines – also agreed not to disclose details of the settlement. The issue has been in dispute between the two companies for some time. In 2008, GE (Fairfield, Connecticut) filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission alleging that Mitsubishi’s 2.4- megawatt turbines infringe its patents. GE then filed suit with a district court in Texas in 2009, and another in 2010, according to the statement. Mitsubishi Heavy filed two lawsuits with district courts in Florida and Arkansas, both in 2010. Fed up with suspicions of cyber espionage, Huawei ostensibly will quit some technology markets in the United States “Huawei, the Shenzhen, China-headquartered manufacturer of telecom equipment, is throwing in the towel and will no longer spend time, effort and money on trying to extend its limited presence in the US.” Martyn Warwick, of TelecomTV.One , was reporting on a decision announced by the founder and CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, during a 25 th November interview with the French publication Les Echos . Mr Ren said that, in the interests of relieving tensions, Huawei has “decided to exit the US market, and not stay in the middle.” The reference was, of course, to the chronically rocky relations between the US and China but also to concerns on the part of American legislators that Huawei itself poses a security threat to the United States. Mr Ren’s declaration presumably meant that Huawei will no longer seek telecommunications deals on American networks, although it is considered unlikely to stop selling equipment in that market. (“Huawei Admits Defeat and Exits US market,” 4 th December). As noted by Phil Goldstein of FierceWireless (3 rd December), in 2012 both Huawei and ZTE were stung by a US government report that the two Chinese companies pose a security risk because their equipment can be used for espionage — a claim Huawei and ZTE have vigorously and repeatedly denied. Telecom

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2014