Huawei and ZTE make almost the same products. They both come from the communications field and are involved in the smartphone business. However, compared with ZTE, Huawei is more well-known than ZTE. At this juncture when the Sino-US trade war is intensifying, we can see the gap between the two companies in R&D and market strategies.
ZTE has been "sanctioned" by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which prohibits U.S. companies from supplying components, technology and services to ZTE for the next seven years. Without core chips supplied by U.S. companies, many of ZTE's businesses would be unable to continue and may fall into an unsustainable situation. What ZTE will lose this time is not only the chips in the next few years, but also the market and product resources that it has worked hard to accumulate for many years.
Huawei does have its own chip - HiSilicon chip. Although it is still far from the top international level, it can be used. In the wave of mobile Internet, ZTE has missed too many opportunities. New brands represented by Xiaomi have risen rapidly, established manufacturers have rushed to respond, and ZTE has been defeated in the competition. Huawei has stood firm, found a path to breakthrough, and gradually adapted to the new changes in the Internet era. It has leveraged its technological accumulation and market advantages to regain the market, and has gone abroad and entered overseas markets.
From a management perspective, leaders are not courageous enough. Huawei's Ren Zhengfei handed over the terminal to Yu Chengdong and did not interfere himself. Regarding HiSilicon chips, Ren Zhengfei defies public opinion and promotes chip and system research and development with an iron fist. Because he is not looking at the present, but planning for the future and making long-term plans.
From a strategic perspective, take a long-term view. As early as 2012, Huawei began to build its own chips and establish its own operating system. Huawei President Ren Zhengfei said at the time that Huawei needed to make mobile phone operating systems and chips. If it no longer cooperates with external parties, Huawei's own operating system can compete. Invested "400 million US dollars and 20,000 people" to attack the chip field and created HiSilicon chips.
The difference between ZTE and Huawei lies in the way of thinking, whether our way of thinking about problems is advanced enough, whether we can accept the baptism of new thinking and keep up with the pace of the world