HUAWEI Technologies Inc. remains unfazed by its absence in the International Data Corp.’s (IDC) list of top wearables vendors.
“We’re not eager right now who is No. 1 but every brand should bring value to consumers to be able to exist in the market,” Charles Wu, Huawei Technologies Philippines Inc. country manager, told the BusinessMirror.
Wu explained on the sidelines of the company’s Philippines launch of its Talkband B2 wearable that they were expecting not to be on the list of IDC’s top 5.
Almost a week before the Huawei launch, IDC said that Apple is now within “striking distance of the established market leader, Fitbit.”
IDC said on August 27 Apple Inc. shipped a total of 3.6 million units of smart and basic wearables—devices that do not run third-party applications and includes most fitness trackers—in the second quarter of the year. That volume was just 0.8 million units behind Fitbit’s 4.4 million units, IDC said.
“Our target is always make consumers love and [become] trustworthy of our product. Shipment volume is just a final number, which [would] prove if we did good or not,” Wu said on September 1 when asked to react to the IDC data.
According to Wu, “Huawei go [in a] different way.”
“Of course, the pioneers in the wearable are leading. Huawei is normally not fast but we move very steady.”
Still, the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer’s growth in the Philippines is impressive if we believe Wu’s disclosure Huawei is growing annually its device business in the country by 50 percent.
Wu, however, didn’t offer targets on the volume of shipment of the TalkBand B2 to the Philippines.
Still, he said the company would ship its wearables according to consumer feedback.
“Currently we don’t take a target. We want consumers to give comments, no matter positive or negative, to help us understand better the consumer [so that we can] tailor-made better device to meet consumer requirements.”
Wu further explained what should be monitored is Huawei’s movement.
“You can see [how we appraise the wearables market based on] our movement. We continue to launch the wearables, which we consider still emerging but growing dramatically.”
Indeed, the company’s Philippines launch of its Talkband B2, priced at nearly P7,000 ($149.01) and given to this writer by the company, came a day after Huawei launched its high-end wearables in the EU market.
According to Wu, the wearables market “just started.”
“Every brand and company need to contribute their own value to meet consumer requirements. We will bring our own value, for example, the Talkband B2.”
Wu said the company’s wearable is one innovation ahead of “our competitors because we merged the talk function into the device.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes