Huawei: '4G will drastically change the tablet market in 2013'

Huawei: '4G is the way to break up the tablet market'
Is 4G really the winning tablet formula?

We all know the tablet market is dominated by a handful of big brands at the moment, but Huawei reckons it knows how to break that party up.

Brands such as Apple, Google and Samsung currently rule the roost, but it's affordable 4G slates which could see the market burst open with opportunity for other manufacturers.

TechRadar spoke to Jim Powell, Huawei's Head of Product Management, who told us: "You only need to look at how well the whole tablet market is performing to see that it is something of interest for everybody.

"There's also a reality at the moment where if you take purely 3G or Wi-Fi tablets, there's a market where a tablet from one manufacturer is what the majority of people are buying.

Show us the LTE

"Our view is a very simple one, put LTE into these devices, put the power and the speed that we can put into these devices and you open up a different world.

"Are there opportunities for the other tablets we've got at the moment? Absolutely. And there will be a number of announcements later in the year around that."

It seems that Huawei could well be readying an arsenal of 4G enabled tablets for later this year and going by the Chinese firm's track record they could be pretty affordable.

While Powell wasn't in a position to comment on Hauwei's future 4G devices roadmap he did comment on the stat of the superfast network in Britain: "the UK is in an unique position at the moment with most 4G services expected to launch in the third quarter, therefore there will need to be further new products entering the market."

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.