Huawei Technologies is leading the telecom equipment market with income from phones, wireless equipments, enterprise, etc – in 2013, ahead of Ericsson.
Ericsson’s majority income is from telecom infrastructure business.
You may read: Ericsson posts flat 2013 revenue growth to $35.13 billion
While Huawei said its 2013 revenue would be around $39 billion, Ericsson today announced around $35 billion revenue for last year.
However, comparison between Ericsson and Huawei will not reflect an “Apple to Apple” comparison because Huawei sells smartphones as well, while Ericsson has broadcasting equipments biz. Ericsson last year exited from smartphone business with Sony.
You may read: Huawei sales up 8 percent in 2013, driven by telecoms Capex and smartphones
While Ericsson posted a flat growth last year, Huawei Technologies earlier said its sales last year gained 8 percent. Main growth drivers for Huawei included devices and capital spending (Capex) in wireless equipment by Chinese telecom operators.
Ericsson today said it would look at Europe and China for further growth in 2014. Earlier, Huawei said it benefitted from China’s accelerating shift to 4G LTE wireless service.
For both Ericsson and Huawei, China market is important for additional growth. China Mobile had started rolling out a nationwide trial network last year, which the carrier said in March would boost 2013 capital spending to 190.2 billion yuan.
In 2013, Ericsson said network business generated sales of SEK 117.7 billion, global services SEK 97 billion and support services SEK 12.2 billion.
Despite a flat growth, Ericsson CEO did not share a firm roadmap for growth. Besides Huawei, Ericsson faces competition from NSN, Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE, Samsung, Cisco, etc.
In fact, the Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has already overtaken Ericsson in terms of first half revenue in 2013. The difference in H1 revenue was around $2 billion.
You may read: Telecom vendor Huawei overtakes Ericsson in first half revenue 2013
In the first half of 2013, Huawei posted revenues of $18.54 billion (CNY 113.8 billion) against Ericsson’s $16.65 billion (SEK 107.4 billion).
Note: Conversion of RMB and SEK to $ was done during the result announcement dates.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
