Just two weeks ago, I attended a media dinner with Huawei with many other renowned technology journalists from Sydney. Smiles left and right, nice company and good dinner, even a little time to play with the newly announced Huawei Mate Xs.
There was no sign – just for this dinner – that things were going to go behind the scenes. In fact, Huawei Australia was in the process of completely dissolving its independent board of directors.
Independent President John Lord – a former Australian naval officer – left office in late February, as did the rest of the independent board. Currently, there are only two frames left:
This decision comes as no surprise to most Huawei observers in Australia – for the past decade, he has been prevented from participating in the construction of the national broadband network, has refused participation in future 5G networks, and if this blow to the aspirations of the company was not enough, its consumer activity was cut to its knees by the ban on American trade which practically made Huawei smartphones impossible to sell outside of China. It seems that few people are willing to spend top-notch smartphone dollars on a phone that cannot integrate with the still essential services offered by Google.
In the past two years, Huawei’s proud and large Australian workforce has grown from around 1,000 locally recruited employees to less than 500. Information Age (published by ACS) noted that:
In December, Huawei warned its network of 50 local suppliers that the company’s work pipeline would dry up by the end of 2020 – resulting in the loss of 1,500 local jobs – unless the Australian government reverses its ban 5G.
With this ban not overturned, with the construction of the NBN almost complete without Huawei’s participation, and with Huawei’s consumer products not particularly appealing to an Australian audience, it seems that the company does not have much to invest more in the Australian market.
I suspect the ship has now sailed, and even if the government rescinds the ban on using Huawei 5G products in Australia, carriers may have little appetite to use the seller’s products given its other woes.
Huawei Australia has been operating within the Western Europe region of the group for some time, but with the departure of local management and directors, this integration into the WEU region will become more pronounced.
Thanks to a combination of Australia’s Huawei product bans and the U.S. government neutralizing consumer activity, Huawei’s once bright star is almost extinct in Australia, at least for now. After so many great products – including the super hits from the Mate 20 and P30 series – it’s a shame to see a great innovator disappear almost as quickly as it has grown in importance.
