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The Huawei Blaze, the Chinese company’s first own-brand phone to hit the UK, could be out as soon as September, according to Bloomberg.
The Blaze is tipped to be a budget Android smart phone, running version 2.3 Gingerbread of Google’s mobile operating system, and a 3.2-inch touchscreen. It could sell for as little as £100, analysts reckon.
Another phone, the Huawei Vision, is also headed for the UK, and the company will also sell a tablet called the MediaPad.
Why are we so excited about a cheap Huawei Android mobile? Well, marketing a phone under its own name — rather than letting another company slap its logo on and take all the credit — is the same move HTC made a few years ago. It quickly went from making phones for the likes of T-Mobile to selling its own brilliant devices. And now it’s one of the biggest names in mobile tech.
More recently, phone builder ZTE decided to start making its own-branded mobiles too. ZTE is the company behind phones like the Orange San Francisco and Orange Monte Carlo.
“We’re trying to establish the brand, almost from scratch,” said Mark Mitchinson, Huawei’s UK executive vice president. He reckons Huawei will be competing with “anyone involved in Android”.
Tough talk. Huawei will need a good deal of marketing clout to make the public aware of its existence, even before it can be considered a rival to manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and HTC. We’d suggest Huawei starts with a campaign explaining how to pronounce its name.
Do you think Huawei stands a chance? Let us know in the comments section below, or on our Facebook wall.
