Strengths Headquartered within the heart of the world ˜s smartphone manufacturing cluster in Shenzhen, China, Huawei has been able to profit from the fact that it is both native to the chinese market as well as the fact that by being the world ˜s largest telecommunications provider it can create synergies in its smartphone operations. Almost half of Huawei ˜s employees work in the fields of research and development (Ahrens, 2013) which has been linked to its core strength, namely to develop everything it can in-house. For many years Huawei ˜s management avoided government encouraged joint ventures with technologically more advanced companies abroad because it had realized that those companies would have no incentive to bring the innovations Huawei was striving for into the partnership (Ahrens, 2013). Therefore it seemed only plausible to acquire knowledge through reverse engineering competitors products. When examining Huawei ˜s strengths, it is worth mentioning that the company is the only larger player in the smartphone market which is still privately held (Ahrens, 2013). This circumstance has enabled Huawei to keep its books closed and to be more secretive about its strategy and financials. Weaknesses However as a company originating from China also has several drawbacks as Huawei faces consumer expectations of inferior quality even though the majority of all smartphones today are being produced in China. Moreover accusations of Chinese government institutions targeting hardware provided by Huawei in cyber attacks to steal intellectual property or personal data have put the brand under pressure in foreign markets (The Guardian, 2012). Opportunities Being based out of China provides Huawei with large cost advantages over its competitors regarding labor costs, the company could potentially use this advantage to cut prices further in an attempt to attract more customers and acquire more market share. This could be especially a v