Huawei’s R&D spend sets it apart from its rivals, but it still has major challenges

In recent years, Huawei’s results announcements and annual reports have been in painful contrast with those of its main mobile network rivals, achieving growth and profits when Nokia and Ericsson have often been struggling for either. Another aspect that will make depressing reading for the European majors is revealed in its newly published 2017 report, which shows that it invested over 2.5 times more in R&D than its key competitors – which suggests it will only widen the gap between them. The report shows that R&D investment rose to $13.8bn in 2017, up from about $11.8bn the year before. The Chinese firm has already pledged to spend between $10bn and $20bn a year in R&D from this year on. Of…