the new generation has begin

Apple has announced the iPhone 4S, more of an iPhone 4 with lots of hardware improment. The new smartphone will run the latest iOS 5 with over 200 new features, expected to be released for existing iPhone users on October 12, 2011.
All the details, specification, features of the iPhone 4S below:

Huawei gears up for new targets

 

NEW DIRECTION: Huawei's booth at the recent ITU conference in Geneva, Switzerland. By realligning and restructuring its business targets, Huawei hopes to be a big player in the IT industry.

ICT solutions provider Huawei Technologies Ltd has restructured and realigned its business to meet the demands of a world increasingly embracing information and ­communications technology.

Traditionally catering to the needs of telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers, Huawei has set plans in motion to conquer the enterprise market with its brand of cloud-computing solutions, and the end user market with its brand of smartphones.

"Many of the challenges in the IT industry can no longer be addressed individually from carrier to carrier or device to device. There needs to be a solution that can stretch across all three verticals," said Ross Gan, its head of corporate communications.

He said Huawei wants to be present in these verticals - networking, cloud ­computing and devices - and hopes to gain a better advantage in the competitive IT ­industry.

Gan was speaking on the sidelines of the recently concluded International Telecommunications Union World Conference in Geneva.

Into the Cloud

Huawei may be a veteran in the network solutions arena and cloud computing is a fairly new venture for the company but it isn't daunted.

"Cloud computing is very new and everyone is still finding their feet. Many companies have formed alliances and joint ventures in order to compete in this space," Gan added.

Ron Raffensperger, Huawei's director of cloud computing marketing, said cloud ­computing represents a small percentage of the company's revenue but as the ­technology gains popularity, it wants to increase its R&D investment in that space and have 4,000 engineers working on cloud computing ­solutions.

The company's cloud strategy is to offer organisations the components to build their own Cloud in a single solution - Huawei's Single Cloud.

"This is a solution that can work across a broad environment," Raffensperger said.

Huawei's cloud solution includes its own brand of servers, storage, network, security and software solutions all developed internally or with the help of partners through the joint venture agreements it formed to enrich its own suite of cloud-computing solutions.

"In order to work with our partners better, we have created a set of open interfaces that will help enrich our suite of IT solutions," he said.

One of the partners it is working with is storage and security solutions company Symantec Corp.

Raffensperger said the security solution born out of this joint venture will make it easier for organisations to encrypt their data before it is stored in the Cloud. It is also working to develop storage solutions with Symantec.

Huawei also wants to push its own brand of servers to a larger group of customers. Raffensperger said Huawei makes its own servers and it is a little known fact that it has been in the server business for five years.

"Last year, we hit about US$25mil (RM75mil) in server sales mainly to major ISPs (Internet service providers) in China," he said.

It is also working to develop its own ­virtualisation software that will allow ­organisations to run multiple virtual ­computers on a single server.

Huawei plans to use its expertise in ­networking to create a high performance data network that can be used in datacentres.

Huawei has also set its sights in ­growing its cloud computing customer base. Raffensperger said the company hopes to have at least 60% of its customers come from outside China. Currently, only 25% are from outside that country.

Devices, too

To capture the end user market, Huawei is intensifying its device division and hopes to launch its brand of smartphones.

Gan said the phones will run on Google's Android operating system and it already has a strong relationship with the search-engine giant.

"As we enter the mobile devices market, we'll be engaging with end users and we're working to put more resources in this ­venture so consumers will get to know Huawei ­better," he said.

The device market is not entirely new to Huawei which has created devices to go with its network, as well as USB dongles ­usually used to connect mobile devices to the Internet.

New ventures always have their ­challenges and Huawei sees its main challenge in ­obtaining talent, especially those able to bring the Huawei name beyond carrier circles.

"The enterprise and devices market require different skill sets because selling to them is nothing like selling to the carriers," Gan said.

He explained that the relationship with carriers is deeper and more personal while the enterprise and device markets are more dispersed and Huawei must have the ability to connect with different channel partners in order to win these new markets.

"We're quickly putting these pieces into place," he said.

And with the right pieces in place, Huawei hopes to make US$100bil (RM300bil) in revenue in the next 10 years, with each of its sectors contributing about a balanced amount.

"We will be building up the brand as we target new kinds of audiences.

"We're pretty much well known in the ­carrier space and maintain a low profile in others, but that's going to change," Gan said.