A tumbling start for Huawei’s smart phones in Pakistan?

I just came across this post by Rabiya Zahir who states what she saw on July 16 in Lahore at the launch event of Huawei’s smart phones in Pakistan.

To some extent i am in agreement with the writer that the function was actually not showing the tall image of Huawei Technologies. I know Huawei as a market leader in the category of cellular networks and corporate solutions but selling the consumer product (mobile phone) is totally a different ball game. Huawei is yet to prove its might here.

I happened to meet Huawei mobile phones team a day before it was launched in Lahore and i could smell they were targeting to be a replacement of Samsung and HTC in Pakistan. Globally, they are eying number 3 position. In the first quarter of 2012 they were at number seven position behind Sony, HTC, RIM, Nokia and Samsung. In China they may have been selling good numbers which is comparatively a larger market but foreign markets are a little tricky to handle. It is premature to claim anything here but we would love to see them becoming a 3rd option in the smart phone category, at least, people will be having some quality products at reasonable rates in Pakistan.

Coming back to the post that compelled me to write few lines on this, someone said me at the event, ‘First impression is the last impression’. Personally speaking, Huawei team had created a lot of buzz and it was the right thing to do but all went wrong on that night. I went through couple of comments on facebook from the fellow bloggers and speakers who attended the event who had shown their disappointment over the performance.

As Rabiya states there was total a chaos, i would say dealers functions in Pakistan are always like that. Many mobile phone companies in Pakistan arrange entertaining events for their dealers, most of the times away from the cities, so they could enjoy the moments in isolation. After all they are the ones who have to sell the products eventually.

Personally speaking, Huawei could have arranged two separate events, one for media people and bloggers who are skilled enough to publish much needed stuff about products and future roadmap of any company. They are the ones who spread the words like fire. Whereas, another event could have been dedicated exclusively to the whole sellers and retailers with a touch of music and modeling.

Anyways, what’s gone is gone. But, i believe, since it was their first ever effort in the mobile phone category, therefore, we must expect them to learn from their very beginning.

Another thing that was highlighted by Rabiya;

The entire event was about the launch of Huawei smartphones but It was really disappointing that no one from the Huawei briefed the audience about their mobile phones or their future course of action in Pakistan. Next few days, i tried to find out the details of the phones in the newspapers but nothing was there. I believe it wasn’t a launching event. Perhaps they were testing the nerves of people.

The place was swelled with uninvited people and it looked that management had lost mind. In a place of 500 more than 1200 people, mostly friends of mobile phone sellers, made their way in and overwhelmed the management.

I also heard about a lucky draw on the spot but the celebrity who had been asked to do the favor left in agony. So the idea was somehow dropped later.

Despite of what happened, i believe, first impression shouldn’t be the last impression in this case. Huawei has a good product lineup and at reasonable price they can make a difference in the market. Expecting some magic thing from them would be a premature assessment. We have been told that Huawei is soon going to introduce more smartphone down the road in 2012.

So let’s keep your fingers crossed.

Following are some pictures of the launch event.