These were times. When China called Huaweia to copy Western electronics

Huawei was one of the leaders of the telecommunications market and consumer electronics just a few days ago, with great prospects for the future. However, the company's history began modestly. Very modestly.

The word Huawei is a Chinese word game. It can mean both a wonderful act and Chinese magnificence , due to the ambiguity of the hua element. This proud name symbolized some hope. It was to help modernize the Chinese technical infrastructure with modern headquarters. In the eighties, these were obtained with the help of Western partners, which generated unwanted costs and delays. It was decided to ... fake them.

Ren Zhengfei, former deputy director of the engineering corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, decided to do this. He founded Huawei in Shenzhen, with an initial capital of only 21,000. yuan. Together with local scholars he undertook the task of analyzing the western central units. Then, thanks to so-called reverse engineering, he took on the creation of counterparts that could be produced locally.

Ren Zhengfei , however, knew that creating counterfeits was not enough

Huaweia's development plan was relatively simple. The company was to multiply its capital by importing PBX subscribers from Hong Kong, and then adapting them to the needs of the local market. However, he not only bought them and passed them on, but also used them as a model for his own constructions. Only that this is not the end. The President made sure that some of the capital was going to develop proprietary solutions. He had ambition not only to catch up with his business partners in development, but also to ... overtake.

In 1990, there were 600 people on the payroll of the research and development department in Huawei. At that time, the company started to introduce the first products to the market, both domestic and western. In addition to cooperation with entities developing the Chinese telecommunications infrastructure, Huawei began offering PBX PBX to hotels and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The first commercial success took place in 1993 thanks to the Huawei C & C08 central unit

It was a much better product than any other available to Chinese customers, including foreign companies. It was produced locally, and therefore much cheaper, thanks to which it quickly found a mass application in agricultural areas and small towns. At that time Huawei signed a contract with the Chinese People's Liberation Army, under which he was to build the first fully national telecommunications network.

Huawei, through his successes, crept into the favor of the communist party ruling the country. When in 1994, Ren Zhengfei met with secretary Jiang Ziemin, he told him that telecommunications centers are closely related to national security - the lack of their own headquarters compared to the lack of military equipment. This comparison supposedly appealed to the party's authorities and guaranteed its favor. As a result, in 1996, under the national decree, telecommunications companies operating in China were obliged to use Chinese equipment wherever possible and where there are no contra-indications to this.

After conquering China came the appetite for western markets

Huawei's first customer was Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, who started buying hardware from the character of our text. Huawei himself began to invest more and more money in equipment for the GSM, CDMA and UMTS networks. In 1999, he opened a research and development center in India and gained more and more clients on foreign markets.

When did Huawei cease to be a Chinese company and became an international corporation ? I would point to 2005, when for the first time receipts from foreign clients exceeded those from the domestic market. Huawei was joined by a great Vodafone, and later by British Telecom. The Chinese company together with Optuse opened a research and development center in Sydney, and in the same year joined the group standardizing together with Nokia Siemens the HSPA + format. Huawei also created one of the first 4G networks in the world, in cooperation with the Norwegian TeliaSonera.

Huawei has become one of the most important companies in the telecommunications industry. But we associate it mainly with telephones

For some reason, Huawei was eager to reach the end user, an ordinary customer. To this end, in July 2003, a separate department was set up in the company to deal exclusively with consumer electronics. Let me remind you of their most important representatives from the beginning of the company's activity. Do you remember one of them?

Huawei C300 - market debut. (2004)

A simple and cheap phone for a mass client.

Huawei U626 - to connect faster. (2005)

This is the first phone of a company compatible with the 3G network.

Huawei U8220 - the first Huawei Android phone on board (2009)

His advantage was an extremely low price.

Huawei Ascend P1 S - because we are so serious now. (2012)

Huawei already knew he was staying on the consumer market for good. The Ascend line is the ancestor of today's P line. This particular model on the day of its debut was the thinnest Android phone on the market (6.68 mm thick).

Huawei Ascend D1 with a nice display (2012).

This model is equipped with a 4.5-inch touch panel, made in IPS technology with a resolution of 720p.

Huawei Ascend P1 LTE - the first Huawei phone with 4G support. (2012)

The product sold at a price significantly facilitating operators to convince customers to switch to a new generation of telecommunications services.

Huawei Ascend D2 - Android debut from Huawei. (2013)

It is with this phone in mind that Huawei has built its own operating system, EMUI, based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project). In spite of far-reaching changes in the structure and interface of the system, it has remained fully compatible with Android APIs, including those required by the Play Services. Therefore, it was possible to create two versions of EMUI, the one intended for the Chinese market, and thanks to this compliance behavior intended for the international market, with all certificates from Google.

Huawei Ascend Mate, the answer to the Galaxy Note. (2013)

Huawei understood that Samsung's idea of ​​a huge display on the phone makes sense. That's why he created the device that started today's Mate product line.

Huawei Ascend P2, the world's first phone with LTE Cat4 support. (2013)

And by the way quite efficient components and extensive equipment.

Huawei Ascend P6, the first adventure with a premium shelf. (2013)

This phone was the first to be a direct competitor to the flagship models of Samsung and HTC. This was evidenced not only by high class equipment and components, but also by strong emphasis on attractive design and finishing materials.

Establishment of the Honor brand

At the end of 2013, Huawei announced the creation of a new brand that would specialize in offering devices that have a particularly advantageous relationship to their price capability.

You already know the continuation of this story

Not only did it write great devices from the P and Mate lines, but also surprisingly good portable computers from the Matebook line. Huawei was on the right track to become a leader in consumer electronics, at least from the hardware side.

Unfortunately, recent events seem to end this dream , because everything indicates that due to the American-Chinese trade war, Huawei will have to collapse from international markets or significantly reduce its presence on them - unfortunately, because it is particularly painful for the company, probably this also applies to Huawei telecommunications solutions.

These were times. When China called Huaweia to copy Western electronics