News

• EU to investigate telecommunications equipment imports from China

  The European Union is preparing to investigate the imports of mobile networking gear from China for anti-competitive practices, a move that's likely targeted at telecommunications equipment companies Huawei Technologies and ZTE.

• Apple regains fifth spot in Chinese smartphone market, shipments soar

  Apple retook its spot as China's fifth largest smartphone vendor in the first quarter, as the country's market grew to triple the size of the U.S.'s.

• LG stages comeback as smartphones outsell feature phones for first time

  LG Electronics more that doubled its sales of smartphones in the first quarter, which was the first time smartphones outsold feature phones, according to market research company IDC.

• Huawei: US market no longer focus for its carrier business

  After facing a congressional battering over security concerns, Huawei's carrier networking group is no longer focused on the US market, and instead expects to find ample business in other parts of the world.

• China's Huawei bolstering smartphone strategy, plans to announce new handset

  Chinese handset maker Huawei plans to introduce a new smartphone in the middle of this year, packed with the "best hardware and design," and is preparing to open a slew of new stores in its home market.

• Huawei loses to ZTE in French patent suit

  Networking and telecom equipment vendor Huawei has lost a patent lawsuit it filed in France against ZTE over a USB connector patent, ZTE said on Friday.

• Sprint pledges not to use Huawei, lawmaker says

  Sprint Nextel and Softbank have pledged to keep Huawei Technologies products out of the Sprint network and try to replace Huawei gear that is already in Clearwire's network, according to a U.S. lawmaker.

• U.S. to scrutinize IT system purchases with ties to China

  Certain U.S. federal agencies could be hindered from buying information technology systems made by companies with links to the Chinese government under the new funding law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this week.

• Huawei wins German sales ban on 4G ZTE base stations

  Networking and telecom equipment vendor Huawei has won a provisional injunction against sales of 4G base stations by competitor ZTE in Germany.

• Huawei leans on SAP to give enterprise push a boost

  Huawei Technologies' enterprise division is ramping up its European presence, helped by the announcement this week that SAP has certified the company's servers to run its HANA in-memory platform. Such deals with SAP and other big software vendors will be key for Huawei to succeed in the enterprise.

• Mobile carriers, vendors eager to virtualize networks

  There has to be a sea change in how mobile operators build their networks and implement new services, and virtualization will make it possible, carriers and equipment vendors say.

• Five smartphone and tablet trends from Barcelona

  This year's MWC may have been lacking in high-end smartphone launches, but the "W" stands for "world" and lower-cost models shown this week are needed to open up the mobile-phone market to more people globally.

• Cost of LTE smartphones dropping surprisingly fast, analyst says

  Products from several smartphone vendors and processors from the likes of Nvidia are helping drive down the cost of LTE-enabled devices.

• Huawei launches LTE-equipped Ascend P2

  Huawei Technologies has expanded its device portfolio with the LTE-equipped Ascend P2 as the company hopes to climb upwards in the smartphone market.

• Can China's phone makers take on Apple and Samsung?

  They are probably the biggest cellphone makers most people have never heard of. Despite ranking third and fourth in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter, mention Huawei and ZTE to many Americans or Europeans and you're likely to be met with a blank stare.