华为中兴争夺智能手机市场

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.

按销售额计算，华为是全球第二大网络设备供应商，但是其手机业务尚未取得同样的成功。该公司报告，在进行代价高昂的产品发布后，营运利润率下滑。

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，这家私有企业发布了财报摘要，显示营运利润率下降了7.7个百分点，至9.1%。分析师表示，这主要是受推出昂贵的新型智能手机和平板电脑拖累。

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.

华为主营的运营商网络业务去年仅增长3%，这凸显出该公司分散业务的必要性。去年，华为营收达2039亿元人民币（合323亿美元），其中网络业务占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，该公司表示希望到2015年成为世界第三大手机品牌，但是华为不仅面临顶尖厂家的激烈竞争，还要应对同在深圳的竞争对手中兴。

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.

和华为一样，中兴这个品牌名称在发达市场消费者中也没有什么名气，因为它的大多数手机以当地运营商的品牌销售。昨天，中兴管理团队在一场会议上告诉分析人士，中兴到2015年的目标是在销量上成为第三大智能手机供应商，现在这个位置由台湾的宏达电(HTC)占据。

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.

中兴计划通过向高端手机市场转移来实现这一目标，而不是坚持中国电信制造商更为传统的低价竞争策略。中兴将于7月推出一款型号为Mimosa X的新Android手机，希望借此提高利润率，确立中兴作为一家不容小觑的手机制造商的地位。

“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.”

手机战略主管吕钱浩表示：“我们不怕硬碰硬地竞争。我们最新的产品在厚度、待机时间、屏幕分辨率和用户体验方面都能和最优秀的产品一较高下。”

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.

中兴和华为在一系列产品和服务上都存在竞争，但是前者去年的营收是863亿元人民币，远低于后者。不过中兴有着乐观的目标，计划在今年售出4000万-5000万部智能手机，到2015年售出1亿部。华为表示，去年发运了大约2000万部智能手机。

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证券公司的常务董事Cynthia Meng表示，中兴去年中止了与韩国和台湾智能手机零部件供应商的合作，开始启用更为低廉的中国内地工厂，因此中兴的利润率应该可以改善。她表示：“这也表明，中国科技供应链正在成熟，中兴正在进一步扶持供应商。”

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.

不过，她补充道，还不清楚中兴将在何种程度上转向“高端”。她估计，按照业界标准，在该公司今年发货的产品中，只有10%属于真正的高端产品。译者:倪卫国