CMO Shao Yang explains Huawei's lack of confidence in Windows Phone

In an interview taken at MWC 2014,Huawei's CMO, Shao Yang, opened up about the company's problems withWindows Phone. Essentially, it's the bigger licensing cost, theso-called "app gap", and the fact that WP is a closedplatform that concern the Chinese giant. Yang thinks that "allWindows Phone [devices] looks too similar, and it is hard todifferentiate different brands from each other." We assumethat he refers to the software and user experience, instead to thehardware design. Yang explained that, unlike the open-source Android,Windows Phone "blocks a vendor to make their own innovation",which sounds a little clueless - after all, a large percentage ofhardware and software innovations in computing have happened on PCsrunning Windows. And in the context of smartphones, Nokia hassuccessfully implemented its own standout photo and hardware featureson Windows Phone.

However, Yang claims that Nokia isprivileged to certain Microsoft APIs and has an advantage, which heexpects will grow bigger as the two companies merge. "WhenMicrosoft and Nokia combine together, it will be even harder to openthe API." - he believes, and adds that Microsoft gobbling upthe Finns' devices division will "not make the competitionfair". The API claim is curious, as we think that

such unfair competition would havesparked a strong outrage among manufacturers.

Overall, there can't possibly be aclearer indication of Huawei's lack of confidence in Windows Phone.Although the company is on the Microsoft hardware partnership cruise,it's obvious that the bulk of its mobile efforts will remain focusedon Android for the time being. Some of Yang's arguments are fair -it's inarguable that Android as an open-source platform lets theentirety of a vendor's vision come through, and its plausible thatopening up WP will let other makers explore their own ideas about theever-present Live tiles.

Would you like to see vendors applytheir custom “skins” and user experiences on Windows Phone in thesame way they do on Android?

source: WPXBOX