Huawei is bringing its smart power solar products to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Huawei is bringing its smart power solar products to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
It will be one of the more notable pivots of 2020 as Huawei's New Zealand operation launches meeting and solar energy products.
It's now nearly two years since the GCSB barred the Chinese company from Spark's 5G network upgrade - where, for the time being, it has been replaced byrivals Nokia Networks and Samsung.
The IdeaHub Pro. Photo / Supplied
And with Covid consuming the government's attention at most levels, Huawei NZ deputy chief executive Andrew Boater doesn't see any movement on the 5G question anytime soon, much as he maintains it's a trade-related political beat up.
US sanctions, which have crimped Huawei's access to Google's Android operating system and its App Store, have also hit local handset sales.
"That's sad for Kiwi customers," Bowater says. And also for around a third of Huawei NZ's local staff - which has been as high as 200 full-time-equivalents before the GCSB ban - has fallen from around 130 to around 100 since the start of the year, by the deputy CEO's account.
"But we've got to push ahead and focus on what we can do. As a company, we're not one for standing still," he says.
"We've seen a need to diversify. It's a good time to focus on something more positive."
It's certainly a more positive approach than that hinted at in a letter to the government in August last year, whose leaked text included a Huawei threat to abandon the NZ market if its 5G ban remained.
To wit, two major product launches are in the works. One is to bring Huawei's range of solar power products to New Zealand. Although it's solar unit has not had any profile here, the Chinese giant plays in both the commercial and residential markets, and bills itself as the world's largest maker of inverters for converting DC to AC power - the better to sell surplus power from your home's solar tiles to the grid.
"As a company, we're not one for standing still ... It's time to focus on something more positive," says Huawei NZ deputy CEO Andrew Bowater. Photo / File
The solar push is still in its early days, with Huawei NZ in the process of lining up partners and installers, and finalising its local product lineup.
The other major product push will be for Huawei's IdeaHub Pro - a high-end, video conferencing and smart whiteboarding tools that will sell for $12,999 with a 65-inch 4K display or $17,999 for an 85-inch model
The IdeaHub Pro is good to go, launching this week, and Bowater sees it having a market with corporates adapting to the Covid-era remote collaborative working culture.
Although not cheap, it's billed as many cuts above freebie video chat. It supports 60fps wired and wireless projection from up to 20 devices, for example, plus voice and facial recognition for following participants. And an AutoFrame function which can automatically adjust the camera to deliver an optimal image based on the number and positions of attendees.
The IdeaHub Pro. Photo / Supplied
Huawei NZ also plans to make the most of maintaining and promoting its 4G and 4.5G networks in NZ, and to promote "App Gallery", its inhouse alternative go Google's Play Store.
Bowater says he would prefer there were no US sanctions. "Obviously, we do still want to work with Google and other partners," he says. But, regardless, App Gallery is gaining some traction in the meantime, he says. It has been installed on some 400,000 handsets locally, the deputy CEO says, and around 145,000 are using it on a monthly basis.
Efforts by US intelligence agencies to sideline Huawei pre-date current President Donald Trump, and Bowater says he's not sure the result on November 3 will make any difference.
He does note though that "Some of the biggest losers out of the sanctions on us have been US suppliers [like chip-makers Intel and Qualcomm], so it's been a cut-off-your-nose to spite your face scenario."
