Eric Xu, Huawei’s acting CEO, heralded the much talked about merger as ‘huge news for our industry’ as he responded to audience questions at this year’s Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, China.
He added, "For me personally this outcome is a must and I hope they can be successful and become a strong player in our industry," before adding that the consolidation will result in increased market competition which will ultimately generate value for customers.
Xu concluded by saying that the main players in the telco industry can make the ‘industry ready for the future’, which tied in nicely to the key message of his keynote – that of collaboration, openness and cooperation in the connected world.
Preceding Xu on stage at the Summit, William Xu, Chief Strategy Marketing Officer, drew upon the predicted 100 billion connections by 2025 to highlight the necessity of a new approach to shifting end user expectations – an approach the company has dubbed ‘ROADS’.
Standing for Real-time, On-demand, All-online, DIY, and Social, William Xu spoke about how the ROADS experience will reshape network architectures, operation models, and business practices. He commented: "We are now in a new era of revolution, shifting from a traditional society to an information society, The ways in which end users work, live, and learn are vastly different from what came before. They are growing more reliant on the Internet. They need an experience that can be summarised as ‘ROADS."
Following on from William Xu, acting CEO Eric Xu detailed Huawei‘s shift in focus from products to an approach with equal importance placed on both products and services. He remarked, "We’ve redefined our carrier business strategy. Instead of prioritising products over services, we are now attaching equal importance to both of them. We will invest more in services to provide customised commercial solutions that suit the different requirements of carriers at different development stages."
He detailed how the need is now to provide a system that creates value, shifting IT’s role as a supporting system to that of a production system. William XU was adamant that carrier business needs to encompass both products and services, a point he reiterated a number of times, and how services will become key in not only customer services but will also be vital to achieve Huawei’s sustainable growth.
The third key message in addition to services and experiences was that of collaboration. Huawei stated its intention to work with others in the industry in line with the exponential growth in connected devices.
"An era of massive connectivity is coming, influencing all countries, industries, organizations, and individuals. Enhanced connectivity and open collaboration have raised globalisation to a new level," said Xu.
"Huawei will tap into its innovative technologies, pool resources worldwide, and collaborate openly with customers and partners to assist the ICT transformations of carriers and enterprises. Through open cooperation, Huawei aims to build a robust ecosystem for this Better Connected World and ensure the sustainable development of the ICT industry."
The keynote, addressed to over 400 analysts and business leaders from the telecom, Internet, and finance industries, was one lacking in new products – though a public cloud for the Chinese market was announced, expected to launch in July.
