With technology security rumblings in the United States surrounding China's Huawei, the Chinese firm is forging ahead in establishing a beachhead in North America.
As part of this initiative, Huawei's Richard Yu, CEO of the company's Consumer Business Group, has been named as the keynote speaker at the Consumer Technology Association's CES in early January 2018 in Las Vegas.
Huawei launched its Consumer Business Group in 2003. Since then, it has emerged as one of the top three smartphone brands, and has pushed the industry forward through meaningful and innovative consumer technology. Huawei serves over 170 countries and more than one third of the world's population.
Yu originally took the CES 2017 keynote stage to discuss the future of mobility, especially in the areas of AI, virtual reality and connected technologies. He returns in 2018 to share Huawei's exploration on future connectivity and strategy in AI, IoT and new smart devices.
In 2012, the U.S. government asserted that Huawei and Chinese rival ZTE were allegedly creating backdoors in their equipment. These backdoors could then be used for spying. Huawei stepped back for a time but has since started to slowly creep back into the U.S. consumer market with the sales of smartphones.