1st August 2011

One of Asia’s biggest telecommunications companies, Huawei, will step-up the drive towards global mobile cloud computing collaboration this week, by launching the first cloud-only smartphone to the Chinese market, a report in China Daily claims.

While the actual model has yet to be confirmed by the IT giants, the new handset is expected to be unique to current smartphone technology in its offering of unlimited downloadable content accessible via the cloud. As the China Daily article explains:

“These new handsets can provide easy downloads and enable the sharing of movies, electronic books and huge amounts of music, while backing up information on the cloud. 

“Cloud computing provides applications from a server that are executed and managed by a client's web browser. Any web-friendly device connected to the Internet may access the same pool of computing power, applications, and files in a cloud-computing environment.”

Huawei’s CEO for Devices, Wan Biao, is also reported to have confirmed the new handset during a conference in China late last week:

"Huawei is the first mobile phone manufacturer worldwide to introduce a cloud-computing-based smartphone. We want people to live and work on the cloud."

If officially confirmed, the new device could set a precedent for all other smartphones makers, both in terms of storage and the way it delivers cloud computing to the consumer. At present, current offerings are limited to hardware or disk-based storage on other phones, and despite the expectation that Apple’s new iPhone 5 would be the first to fully integrate with cloud computing via its new service iCloud, no official release date has been given.

Huawei already makes 3.3 million smartphones a year, with the majority of its business focused within the Asia-Pacific region. However, with recent projections raised to over 20 million for 2012, the company looks set to expand into other global markets with its new cloud-specific devices. Rumours have already been rife that the UK market will soon see its first Huawei handset thanks to a collaboration with Windows Phone 7.
  
Following its first successful display at the Cloud Computing World Forum in June, the company has extended its UK links even further today, with the announcement that it has hired ex-CIO for the Cabinet Office, John Suffolk, as its new Global Cyber Security Officer. Suffolk was an instrumental figure in the UK Government’s planned adoption of cloud computing (G-Cloud), prior to quitting his post last November. He will now be in charge of “developing Huawei's cyber security assurance strategy and system, while managing and supervising its implementation.”