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.
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.
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.