Huawei’s Head Hunting
China’s Huawei Technologies Co., which is in patent litigations with Samsung Electronics, appointed a former executive of Samsung Electronics in China as vice president of its Chinese consumer business division.
According to foreign media reports, including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP), on August 3, Huawei, the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor after Samsung and Apple, said that it had appointed Andy Ho as vice president of its consumer business group in the Greater China region, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. Ho was previously senior vice president for Samsung Electronics, covering the same region. He left Samsung Electronics after his contract expired.
With the goal of jumping up to be the leader in the global smartphone market within five years, beating Samsung and Apple, Huawei has been on the hunt globally over the past couple of years for experienced mobile industry experts. In October last year, Huawei hired Abigail Sarah Brody, a former creative director at Apple, who worked on the user interface of the first iPhone. In 2012, Yang Zhe, a former China chief marketing officer (CMO) of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Division in China, became China CMO of Huawei’s consumer business.
In May, Huawei filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics for patent infringement regarding the fourth-generation (4G) mobile communications technology in the U.S. and China, demanding 80 million yuan (US$12.03 million or 13.41 billion won) in compensation. The Chinese firm claimed that Samsung Electronics’ affiliates made huge profits from sales of products using Huawei’s technology. The movement was considered an unprecedented provocation by a Chinese company which has had the stigma of fake product producer.
Samsung Electronics sued Huawei for patent infringement regarding the mobile communications technology last month, claiming compensation up to 80.5 million yuan (US$12.11 million or 13.5 billion won). The company insisted that Huawei infringed on its patents for mobile communications system’s control information transmitter and receiver methods and devices and digital camera systems, including data storage for images.