Huawei launches its first webstore in US, starts selling self-branded unlocked Ascend Mate2
Can this Chinese phone giant make it in America? — Huawei launches its first self-branded phone and webstore in the US — If you were to ask the average American consumer to name a company …
Context & Ripple Effects
In February 2014, Huawei executives told Reuters the company was actively hunting for a foothold in the US smartphone race, even as its networking equipment was displacing western-built gear fast enough to draw NSA attention. At home, the numbers backed the ambition: by March the company ranked as the world's third-biggest smartphone maker with 34 percent annual profit growth and a revenue target for 2018 nearly double its prior record.
The webstore is how that ambition meets a market where Huawei has almost no carrier shelf space: rather than fight for subsidized slots at AT&T or Verizon, the company sells the unlocked Ascend Mate2 straight to consumers under its own brand. The pickup across Re/code, AP, Gigaom, Digital Trends and four other outlets shows how closely the US press is watching whether a Chinese vendor can build consumer pull without carrier distribution.
First-order effects
- Huawei now owns its entire US retail relationship — pricing, inventory, and brand presentation of the Ascend Mate2 sit outside carrier control, and buyers get an unlocked LTE device with no contract attachment.
- Every sale runs against the grain of the US subsidy model, so Huawei must win on outright price and spec value where Samsung and LG lean on $199-on-contract placement.
Second-order effects
- If the webstore generates meaningful volume, it gives Huawei proof-of-demand data to carry into carrier negotiations — the same executives who announced the US push in February need exactly this evidence to argue for shelf space.
- The security questions trailing Huawei's networking business can bleed into its consumer brand, forcing US rivals to compete on hardware while opponents of Huawei's infrastructure expansion get a fresh public-facing target.
Third-order effects
- If carrier doors stay effectively closed, direct-to-consumer webstores become the default entry channel for Chinese handset vendors into the US, shifting competition toward unlocked pricing rather than subsidized lineups.
- A visible consumer-phone success would strengthen Huawei's broader position in Washington's debate over Chinese telecom equipment, where its networking displacement is already a stated NSA concern — the phone brand and the infrastructure scrutiny are increasingly one story.
The trend: Chinese smartphone makers are entering the US through self-branded online storefronts first, treating direct sales as the on-ramp to eventual carrier distribution.