Huawei Reaches Unprecedented Riches, Even More Unprecedented Problems
Shenzen-based electronics maker Huawei has been in the figurative crosshairs of the United States government for more years than most remember, with Washington always being suspicious of anyone merely associated with it.
That didn't stop it from doing amazingly well in other parts of the world, especially Europe over the last several years, much to the annoyance of the U.S.whose officials still have their hands full with Huawei, whether in terms of handling criminal investigations or lobbying against the Chinese conglomerate and its equipment abroad as part of a strategy Huawei representatives repeatedly described as scandalously discriminatory.
That isn't to say Huawei is strapped for cash and is barely making ends meet. The tech juggernaut's latest financial report published today may be unsurprisingly vague on the finer details of its operations but it's perfectly clear when it comes to communicating how successful has the company been at rivaling pretty much every handset maker o the planet.
Huawei's revenues exceeded the equivalent of $107 billion in 2018, an amazing feat for any company, let alone one that's been consistently blocked from doing any significant business in the country with the strongest economy on the planet.
While Huawei originally made a name for itself in the wireless segment and remains the world's largest producer of network equipment such as radio towers and small cell stations, consumers electronics became the largest part of its three-armed business this year, the company said.
The conglomerate's first year that saw it hit $100 billion in revenue brought successes on many fronts, most notably smartphones, with its bottom line entering 2019 more than 25-percent thicker than twelve months earlier, being the equivalent of 8,834 billion.
Even as its handset projects are doing well, allowing the firm to continue experimenting with new technologies in other aspects of consumer electronics such as wearables, Huawei is still largely financed by its wireless operations which contributed more than $40 billion to its war chest in 2018.
Better yet, things are bound to get even better because its network tech division is presently going through a somewhat dormant period, in part due to the extent of the U.S. lobbying efforts against all of Huawei's operations mentioned above, bat also due to the impending arrival of the fifth generation of wireless connectivity.
So, even as Huawei might find the task of defending the title of the planet's largest and most innovative player in wireless significantly harder moving forward, everything that led it to this point suggests competition is not something it's particularly concerned about.
Case in poin the manner wherein it elegantly hopped over Apple last year, taking its position of the world's second-largest smartphone vendor for the first time ever.
Nobody's perfect
There's no denying Huawei is a well-managed firm that knows how to make money but even if claims about its close ties to the Chinese government are entirely fabricated, which is highly unlikely, to say the least, no despotic ruler in this fully interconnected day and age can resist attempting to force that data as part of intrusive intelligence-collection practices, as is customary for regimes.
So long as Huawei remains under China, so will Western intelligence agencies likely keep warning against its products and services, especially in the context of critical infrastructure fueled by 5G tech. So, pretty much forever, regardless of whether Washington manages to lock up any key execs and/or extraordinary heirs apparent in the coming years.
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