Country Director Victor Xu shares more about HUAWEI Malaysia’s bright path ahead

To say that HUAWEI has undergone trials and tribulations in the last few years would be an understatement. Even with the ongoing challenges of late, they’ve managed to launch not one, but two flagship series phones in the form of the P50 series and, recently, the Mate50 series flagship phones in Malaysia but what’s next on the horizon?

Hitech Century managed to sit down with Victor Xu Jin Long, Country Director of HUAWEI Malaysia, Consumer Business Group to have a chat about how HUAWEI has weathered the storm, where HUAWEI Malaysia is at present and how they’re back in the game

With over 15 years of experience in the consumer electronics industry and a keen eye on strategic planning and marketing, Victor Xu is a veteran of the tech industry that commenced his career in HUAWEI’s Research and Development department in 2007.

From there, he has advanced onwards and upwards, becoming the Director of China Device Channel Sales to Asia Pacific Device Channel Sales Management Department to his present role spearheading HUAWEI Malaysia’s operations.

Can you give us an overview of HUAWEI Malaysia’s efforts in 2022?

2022 has truly been an exciting year for HUAWEI Malaysia with the launch of multiple flagship devices. We kicked off the year with the P50 series in January, the innovative Mate Xs2 foldable and in October we launched the Mate50 series that features our own patented Kunlun Glass that is among the toughest displays ever implemented in a smartphone. 

HUAWEI has also diversified its efforts into areas beyond smartphones such as our successful HUAWEI Smart Office campaign which saw the debut of an interconnected ecosystem of smart devices that are significant productivity multipliers such as a new generation of Matebook laptops, Matepad tablets and more.

We have also received positive feedback from our customers for our latest line-up of products in Malaysia. All this could not have been achieved without support from our staunch partners and HUAWEI fans.

What milestones has HUAWEI Malaysia achieved this year?

Support for our flagship smartphones in the P series and Mate series has been consistently strong over the years. The return of our P50 series and Mate50 series in Malaysia was a cause for celebration as we enjoyed 150% year-on-year growth in flagship smartphone sales in the country. 

We are also especially pleased by the incredibly positive response to our Mate50 Pro Vegan Leather Kunlun Glass edition smartphones which were sold out within the first 24 hours during its official pre-order period and which are still enjoying strong sales. In fact, we’re the first country outside of China to offer the Kunlun Glass Carbon Black and Silver variants earlier in December based on demand from our customers.

In addition, we have achieved significant growth in our AppGallery. To date, we have achieved an inspiring 99% presence of the top, most used apps in Malaysia from banking to shopping and more with four-layers of security and extensive auditing of every application to ensure that users can download their favourite apps on the AppGallery with confidence.

One of the biggest challenges today is the lack of GMS in today’s HUAWEI smartphones. What steps have been taken to address this, and what was the response from consumers? 

In 2019, we introduced our own application store known as the HUAWEI AppGallery across the globe.that allows users to access a vast range of applications.  

As the official app store for all HUAWEI devices, we are proud to say that 99% of Malaysia’s favourite apps spanning multiple categories from banking to gaming apps are available on the AppGallery that are favourites for Malaysians ranging from essential apps like Lazada, Shopee, Maybank2u, CIMB Clicks Malaysia and more all the way to popular apps such as Genting Skyworld, foodpanda and the Grab superapp, all of which are available on the HUAWEI AppGallery.

To identify apps that Malaysians wanted, we offered a ‘Wishlist’ feature for users to suggest their favourite applications to further expand the breadth and depth of the HUAWEI AppGallery’s range of applications.

We also rewarded our loyal customers with special rewards through the HUAWEI AppGallery such as VIP access to our top apps, exciting prizes on participating in special campaigns such as the recent Mate50 series launch programme, free content such as complimentary ebooks at the HUAWEI Books app, 3-months worth of free VIP HUAWEI VIdeo Access and much more.

That’s not all as we’ve taken great pains to ensure that we have a local HMS team for HUAWEI Malaysia customers to ensure that they get the latest app updates and rewards too while ensuring a better, safer and more enjoyable app store experience for customers.

One of the biggest aspects of EMUI is its seamless connectivity with other HUAWEI devices like smartphones, tablets and devices. How is it different from other UI (user interface) that is currently in the marketplace?

One of the key differentiators for Huawei’s devices is EMUI, our powerful operating system that strives to bring seamless cross-device collaboration capabilities across our ecosystem of devices from laptops to smartphones and more.

Among its cross-collaboration capabilities, we have HUAWEI Super Device support, a collective term to cover a variety of intuitive smart device connectivity combinations to make work and play easier than ever before.

With EMUI 13 in our latest generation of devices like the Mate50 series, customers will enjoy effortless pairing and connectivity such that pairing it with our FreeBuds series earbuds or Eyewear is simply a matter of drag-and-drop in the settings without tedious searching and pairing.

This easy pairing even extends to our Matebook laptops as well which vastly expands possibilities for productivity as the Matebook’s display can project a real time screen of the Mate50’s display that allows users to use the phone straight off the laptop including texting and making calls.

Additional features in EMUI such as Service Widgets, SuperHub, SuperStorage and more magnify its capabilities and versatility several fold to make it a Huawei smartphone a cornerstone key device in their lives.

Most important of all, EMUI emphasises security and privacy in every aspect of its design. With the latest EMUI 13, users can experience a new Privacy and Security Center that allows for a clear, transparent means to manage application permission access, audit the security status of a Huawei device and ensure user data is protected and secure.

What can Huawei customers and fans in Malaysia look forward to in 2023?

Malaysia is a key market for Huawei’s growth and development.  We could not have achieved our successes in 2022 without the staunch support of our customers who believe in every innovation that we create. 

For 2023, we have an exciting line-up of products that will astound and delight. We aim to continue delivering innovative and sophisticated all-scenario ecosystem products to Malaysians in the near future. Throughout the year, we will also host multiple activities for Huawei community fans to share and also educate about our innovative all-scenario ecosystem products. 

In January 2023, Huawei fans in Malaysia can look forward to our Chinese New Year promotions which will bring fantastic deals at the Huawei Experience store, our Huawei Official online stores and our retail partners. To all our customers, thank you for being with us on this journey of innovation and stay tuned to our Huawei Mobile MY Facebook page for the latest updates.