Competition in the telecom equipment industry is getting more and more intense. The technology vendors in the "developing countries" is outpacing the ones in the "developed countries", after conque the low tech fields. For example, Huawei is emerging quickly to eat other's lunch. Let's start from the market landscape in China. 

Huawei's market share of telecom equipment in China is not only number one but increasing in a speed no one can slow down. A friend of mine painted a picture like this:

"A company competes on four important areas: technology leadership, customer relationship, before/after sales service and price. The truth is:
 
In the technology area where US and Europe vendors had claimed leadership for many years, now are ranked after Huawei in many categories in "third" party testing. (Some believed the testing results maybe influenced by Huawei in some way, but they are not confident as before that their products carry any competitive advantage technically.)
 
In customer relationship area, it is very obvious. Huawei sales force is so close to every decision makers in China, for example, they know every customer’s birthday, plus the birthdays of all of their family members and relatives. Any under table deals? Nobody knows for sure, but they are certainly not following the same legal and ethical standards as the US companies, because China has its own law and business culture, which maybe seen un-ethical or illegal by the US standards.
 
In the before/after sales area, it is so hard to beat a home team. They can deliver products within a week after sales contract sign, verses the best of any foreign company can do is to deliver it in 5 weeks. Huawei constantly staff a team in customer’s site with 24x7 service.  They never argued with customer who’s responsible  for any problem, because customer is always right.

In the pricing area, no brainer. Huawei is always 30% below the next lowest bidder. In the telecom market  of China, no foreign vendors can make a profit with such price for sure, once Huawei has similar products on market.  

If the above is old news for some, Huawei is extending its penetration into other countries. It has made significant moves in many emerging countries such as East European countries, Latin America, Africa, and Asia Pacific countries. It is now making inroads into west Europe now. North America maybe the last area without much Huawei’s  sales footstep so far, not yet."

 Well, what can other vendors do under this situation? Localization to cut cost and increase service quality – some says. But is it too late for this, given the fact that RMB is increasing its value every day? Keep innovations coming – others suggest. But it is easy to say than done.

There is no conclusion in the party.