Huawei denies Blackberry, HTC interest

As the dust settles on reactions to Microsoft's announcement that it will buy Nokia's devices business, attention has naturally started to turn to other struggling smartphone makers such as BlackBerry and HTC.
 
Given Huawei's oft-stated ambitions to become a major smartphone player, some pundits have speculated that the company might seek to acquire another vendor to further this goal.
 
But no dice. The vendor has ruled out a handset acquisition, preferring to rely on organic growth for its smartphone business, senior vice president Chen Lifang told Reporters at an event covered by Reuters
 
Huawei was using the event to announce that it had signed a nine-year architecture licensing deal with chipmaker ARM.
 
Prior to Microsoft's announcement, Huawei was forced to deny in June that it was considering buying Nokia, following comments from it head of consumer Richard Yu.
 
Huawei could meanwhile be facing greater smartphone competition in its domestic market from Apple.
 
The iPhone maker has sent out press invitations for a September 10 event focusing on the smartphone brand. The company is widely expected to use the event to unveil the rumored lower-cost iPhone 5C and a successor to the iPhone 5.
 
 
Notably, the company yesterday sent out a second round of invitations to a separate media event in China the following day, TechCrunch reported.
 
As the iPhone 5C is thought to be aimed at emerging markets, Apple may be using the Chinese event to highlight this push.
 
Some pundits have also speculated that Apple may have finally reached an agreement with China Mobile to officially offer a version of the iPhone, after years of both companies failing to reach an agreement on subsidies and support for the little-used TD-SCDMA standard.
 
Whatever the motivation, it appears Apple is going to be putting a greater emphasis on the Chinese market going forward.