华为打破美国市场坚冰，超越苹果在即

中国通讯设备巨头华为在国际市场上一直大踏步前进，只在进军美国上遭遇了挫折。不过这种情况似乎也将出现转机，据报道，该公司已经接近与美国电话电报公司达成协议，在美国销售其旗舰机型。这将会成为华为与美国运营商签订的第一份协议。

几个月来，AT&T都在测试用于公司网络的华为手机和其专利的麒麟手机芯片。科技新闻网站The Information上周五报道称，如今双方即将达成协议，2018年上半年，华为旗舰机将可以在AT&T的无线运营店中直接销售给顾客。

五年前，华为在全球手机销售额中贡献的比例不足1%，但截至去年，他们已经成为了全球第三大手机厂商，市场份额达到10%，仅次于苹果和三星。然而，他们的大部分增长都来源于中国的本土市场和其他的发展中国家。华为消费电子产品部门的主管余承东曾对《财富》表示，他的目标是让公司在明年的某个时候超过市场占有率15%的苹果。

为了进入美国市场，华为推出了搭载莱卡摄像头等优秀特质的高端机型。然而今年2月，公司在巴塞罗那推出新款旗舰机P10时，没有表明它何时能在美国上市。公司的中端机型Mate 9并未通过运营商销售，不过在亚马逊和百思买的网站上已经可以买到。他们还邀请了前苹果Mac代言人贾斯汀·朗来拍摄广告。

华为拒绝回应关于AT&T的传言，不过公司表示：“在美国市场，我们把重点放在开放渠道上，我们的Mate 9、Matebook X、MediaPad和Watch 2等旗舰产品都在上面得到了相当正面的评价。”

AT&T也拒绝对传闻做出评论。

华为主要是通过网络销售未上锁的手机，这样产生的销售额无助于他们赶超苹果。公司之前曾计划为谷歌制造Nexus手机，但由于该手机销量不佳，计划也随之搁浅。之后，在最新的Pixel系列手机上，谷歌不希望产品带有华为的商标，这也导致华为退出了该项目。

Jackdaw Research的首席分析师贾恩·道森指出，联手AT&T会是“一笔大生意”。他在对这项交易的研究笔记中写道：“这次协议和美国四大运营商支持摩托罗拉Z2 Force，预示着在一段时期的精简和聚焦之后，美国的大型运营商开始扩大提供的智能手机款式，这种情况还是第一次真正出现，而且可能已经持续一阵子了。”（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei has been making big strides in the global mobile phone market except in the United States. But that may be about to change as the company is reportedly on the verge of a deal with AT&T to sell its flagship phones here, marking its first deal with a U.S. carrier.

For several months, AT&T has been testing Huawei's phones and its proprietary Kirin mobile phone chip set for use on AT&T’s network. Now a tentative deal is in place for AT&T to sell Huawei's flagship phones in its wireless stores directly to customers in the first half of 2018, the tech news site The Information reported on Friday.

Huawei had less than a 1% share of global mobile phone sales five years ago, but by last year, built itself into the third-largest seller overall by capturing 10% of the market and trailing only Apple and Samsung. But most of the gains so far have been in its home market of China and other developing nations. Richard Yu, who heads the company’s consumer electronics unit, has told Fortune that he’s aiming to pass Apple and its 15% share sometime next year.

To crack the U.S. market, Huawei has been offering higher end models with premium features like Leica cameras. But when it introduced its new flagship, the P10, in Barcelona in February, it didn’t have anything to say about when it would be available in the U.S. A mid-tier model, the Mate 9, is not sold by carriers but unlocked in the U.S. on sites like Amazon and Best Buy, and backed by ads starring actor and former Apple Mac pitchman Justin Long.

Huawei declined to comment on the AT&T rumor, but said: "In the U.S. market, we are focused on the open channel, where our flagship products including the Mate 9, Matebook X, MediaPad and Watch 2, have received very positive feedback."

AT&T declined to comment.

Huawei's mostly-online, unlocked effort hasn’t produced anywhere near the volume of sales that it needs to overtake Apple. An earlier plan to make Nexus phones for Google ran aground when sales failed to take off. Then on the latest Pixel line, Google didn’t want Huawei’s brand to appear on the devices, prompting Huawei to drop the project.

Adding AT&T would be "kind of a big deal," notes analyst Jan Dawson, chief analyst of Jackdaw Research. "Between this and the availability of the Motorola Z2 Force on all four major carriers, we’re potentially entering the first real phase of expansion in the US smartphone lineups offered by major carriers in quite some time, following a period of simplification and focus," he writes in a research note about the deal.