華爲中興爭奪智能手機市場

Huawei, the world’s second-largest network equipment vendor by sales, has yet to see the same success in its handset business, as it reported shrinking operating margins following costly product launches.

按銷售額計算，華爲是全球第二大網絡設備供應商，但是其手機業務尚未取得同樣的成功。該公司報告，在進行代價高昂的產品發佈後，營運利潤率下滑。

The privately-held company yesterday released a summary of its financial report, showing a 7.7 percentage point narrowing of it operating margin to 9.1 per cent. Analysts said it was mainly dragged down by the expensive launches of its new smartphones and tablet computers.

昨天，這傢俬有企業發佈了財報摘要，顯示營運利潤率下降了7.7個百分點，至9.1%。分析師表示，這主要是受推出昂貴的新型智能手機和平板電腦拖累。

Huawei’s mainstay carrier network business grew a mere 3 per cent last year, underscoring the need for the company to diversify. Last year, its network business generated 74 per cent of its Rmb203.9bn ($32.3bn) revenue.

華爲主營的運營商網絡業務去年僅增長3%，這凸顯出該公司分散業務的必要性。去年，華爲營收達2039億元人民幣（合323億美元），其中網絡業務佔74%。

The company said last year that it wanted to become the world’s third biggest handset brand in 2015, but it faces formidable competition from not just the top players, but also crosstown rival ZTE.

去年，該公司表示希望到2015年成爲世界第三大手機品牌，但是華爲不僅面臨頂尖廠家的激烈競爭，還要應對同在深圳的競爭對手中興。

Like Huawei, ZTE’s brand name is not well known among developed market consumers because many of its handsets are sold under the names of local carriers. ZTE management yesterday told analysts at a conference that its 2015 goal was to become the third-largest supplier of smartphones by volume, a slot currently occupied by Taiwan’s HTC.

和華爲一樣，中興這個品牌名稱在發達市場消費者中也沒有什麼名氣，因爲它的大多數手機以當地運營商的品牌銷售。昨天，中興管理團隊在一場會議上告訴分析人士，中興到2015年的目標是在銷量上成爲第三大智能手機供應商，現在這個位置由臺灣的宏達電(HTC)佔據。

The company plans to meet its goal by moving its handset business upmarket rather than sticking to Chinese telecoms groups’ more traditional strategy of competing on lower prices. It is launching a new Android-based model called the Mimosa X in July that ZTE hopes will improve margins and help to establish it as a serious operator.

中興計劃通過向高端手機市場轉移來實現這一目標，而不是堅持中國電信製造商更爲傳統的低價競爭策略。中興將於7月推出一款型號爲Mimosa X的新Android手機，希望藉此提高利潤率，確立中興作爲一家不容小覷的手機制造商的地位。

“We are not afraid to take on the competition head on,” says Lv Qianhao, head of handset strategy. “Our latest products can compete with the best of them in thinness, battery life, the quality of the screen and user experience.”

手機戰略主管呂錢浩表示：“我們不怕硬碰硬地競爭。我們最新的產品在厚度、待機時間、屏幕分辨率和用戶體驗方面都能和最優秀的產品一較高下。”

ZTE and Huawei compete on a range of products and services but the former’s revenues of Rmb86.3bn last year are much smaller. ZTE has bullish targets though, aiming to sell 40m-50m smartphones this year and 100m units in 2015. Huawei said it shipped around 20m smartphones last year.

中興和華爲在一系列產品和服務上都存在競爭，但是前者去年的營收是863億元人民幣，遠低於後者。不過中興有着樂觀的目標，計劃在今年售出4000萬-5000萬部智能手機，到2015年售出1億部。華爲表示，去年發運了大約2000萬部智能手機。

Cynthia Meng, managing director at securities firm Jefferies, said ZTE’s margins should also improve after it dropped smart phone component suppliers in South Korea and Taiwan last year and started using cheaper mainland Chinese factories. “This is also an indication that the Chinese technology supply chain is maturing and ZTE is helping to nurture them further,” she said.

Jefferies證券公司的常務董事Cynthia Meng表示，中興去年中止了與韓國和臺灣智能手機零部件供應商的合作，開始啓用更爲低廉的中國內地工廠，因此中興的利潤率應該可以改善。她表示：“這也表明，中國科技供應鏈正在成熟，中興正在進一步扶持供應商。”

She added, however, that it was unclear how “up market” ZTE was going to become. She estimated that only 10 per cent of its shipments this year were really high-end by industry standard.

不過，她補充道，還不清楚中興將在何種程度上轉向“高端”。她估計，按照業界標準，在該公司今年發貨的產品中，只有10%屬於真正的高端產品。譯者:倪衛國