This article is more than 1 year old

A funny thing happened on Huawei to the bank. We made even more money. Hahaha. Here till Friday

There's gold in them thar 5G networks for comms slinger

Huawei has continued to rake in the big bucks in spite of continued dark mutterings over what may or may not be lurking within its code.

The company published financials today showing that for the first three quarters of 2019 it had generated ¥610.8bn ($86bn) in revenue, a healthy 24.4 per cent up on the same period last year. Its net profit margin stood at 8.7 per cent.

Despite uncertainty surrounding what Google code might be allowed near its smartphones, shipments of the gizmos were also up. 185 million units have been shipped in the first three quarters of 2019, up 26 per cent year-on-year.

The company also reported rapid growth in PCs, tablets, wearables and smart audio products, although, like certain other Western technology companies, remained tight-lipped regarding the actual figures. Certainly, it was a very late entrant to the smart speaker market, leading industry watchers Canalys to lump the company in with Apple and Samsung as having "failed to capitalize on the growth of smart assistants for home use" (PDF).

Of course, as well as smart devices, Huawei is notorious known for its infrastructure, including its controversial 5G technology. Mobile networks insist on using the gear in the face of a quivering finger and high-pitched warbling from US authorities along the lines of "but if you only knew what we know..."

Schrödinger's Red Army Intelligence Officer, if you will.

Thus far, Huawei has signed over 60 commercial contracts for 5G globally and shipped more than 400,000 5G Massive MIMO active antenna units (AAUs) to global markets, and the company optimistically observed that deployment of 5G networks had sped up.

Which it would. Huawei has invested massively in the technology, after all.

And when we say "global", we must omit the People's Republic of Brighton and Hove and, er, the USA. But, heck, it seems OK for the rest of Blighty and Germany, both of which agree that any risk posed by vendor's kit is "manageable", despite tantrums from the US.

Any backdoors, according to researchers, are likely down to pisspoor coding although a recent report into vulnerabilities stopped short of ruling out nefarious activities in Shenzhen. Huawei itself has repeatedly insisted that it would fall on its sword if forced to do something that if felt "was wrong".

Thankfully for the inhabitants of Huawei Land, iffy code and suspicious intelligence officers do not appear to have dented the company's ability to generate vast piles of cash. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like