Huawei says Tizen is doomed, Windows Phone - money down the drain

A Wall Street Journal interview with Huawei's top honcho, Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu, reveals the thinking and key strategic choices of a company that, along with several others, has been on the rise lately.

Perhaps most importantly, Yu said Huawei has absolutely no plans to push Tizen forward, despite spending research money on the Samsung-developed operating system and being concerned about a complete reliance on Android. According to Yu, Tizen "has no chance to be successful", which is likely the reason his company has been saying "no" to carriers when asked to design a Tizen phone.

"We feel Tizen has no chance to be successful. Even for Windows Phone it's difficult to be successful."

What's even more, Yu isn't feeling much better better about Windows Phone, either, specifically because the company has been losing money on its WP-based smartphones for some two years now. For that very reason, the exect says all Windows Phone devices are currently put on hold. 

The CEO also told the WSJ that it has no plans to build its own OS, even though "it's easy to design" one. The problem, as most of you will have realized already, is building the ecosystem around it -- a feat that even Microsoft is struggling with. The Huawei exec also said that his company is not planning on making a Lenovo-like acquisition (Motorola Mobility), and will instead focus on R&D. According to Yu, a bigger sales volume (that can be achieved through acquisitions, for example) can help with lowering costs, but it's R&D that will ultimately provide consumers with better value.

Huawei is now the third-largest smartphone vendor based on total device shipments and shipped 52 million handsets last year. According to Huawei, the company is also seeing higher profit margins than before, and is hoping to ship a whopping 80 million devices in 2014.

source: Wall Street Journal (subscription)