Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, said in an interview with CNBC that the company is “open” to the sales of high-speed 5G chips and other chips to rivals such as Apple.  This marks a major shift in Huawei’s thinking about independent intellectual property rights.

As the world’s largest network equipment manufacturer, Huawei has entered the consumer market through its own brand of smart phones for a relatively short period of time, but has quickly become the world’s third largest smartphone maker by market share.

Ren Zhengfei

Huawei initially sold low-cost mobile phones, but in recent years it has shifted its focus to improving the market share of high-end smart phones, and it has competed with Apple and Samsung Electronics.  As part of this effort, Huawei has developed autonomous chips, including modems that provide 5G connectivity for smart phones, and processors for drive devices.  5G is the next generation mobile Internet that can transmit data at a fast speed.

So far, these technologies have only been used for Huawei devices, but they may change in the future.

Ren Zhengfei said in a CNBC interview on Monday that the company would consider selling 5G chips to other smartphone makers, including Apple.  “We are open to Apple in this regard,” he said.

Apple probably won’t buy a Huawei processor like the Kirin 980 because it already has an autonomous processor, but it might be interested in 5G chips.  Apple has not yet released devices that support 5G networks. The company previously used Qualcomm and Intel modems on the iPhone, but the latest devices only use Intel’s modems because Apple and Qualcomm are playing a global patent battle.

Qualcomm currently has a 5G modem, but Intel’s 5G modem is not expected to be available until 2020.  This means that if Apple wants to release a quasi 5G phone this year, Huawei chips may become a viable alternative.  Apple declined to comment.

Daughter will become stronger

Ren Zhengfei said in an interview that he believes that her daughter Meng Zhouzhou will become “more powerful” because of her arrest, because she had suffered very little in her life.

“If she can come back to us, she will become a hero. I think the story is likely to be this ending.” Ren Zhengfei said.

He said that this experience will make his daughter stronger.  “My children have not suffered during their growth. It is good for them to suffer. The cuts and bruises will make her tough. Since ancient times, heroes have been born in misery. I think this suffering is for my daughter.  There are benefits.” Ren Zhengfei said.

“These difficulties will make her stronger and create a bigger career. I will let her face what she has to face,” he said.

 Jobs is “super great”

In this extensive interview, Ren Zhengfei called Apple “a great company,” and its founder, Steve Jobs, was a “great man.”

“The great Jobs is not because he created Apple, but because he created an era, the mobile Internet era,” Ren Zhengfei said. “It is still a bit conservative to say that he is great. I think he is super great.”

Ren Zhengfei also recalled a story of his young daughter Yao Anna when Jobs died in 2011.  “When he died, I was on vacation with my family in the mountains,” he said. “My little daughter is a fan of Jobs. She suggested that we stop and mourn for Jobs. We did.”

Now, Huawei is seeking to challenge Apple in the consumer market, and even surpassed Apple in the share of smartphones last year.

Ren Zhengfei admitted that the company made a mistake in the smart machine strategy, but said that it has learned from it.  “We set prices based on relatively low cost. Our low cost is for two reasons: first, with the rapid advancement of our technology, we have reduced the cost of the product; secondly, thanks to the Western management approach we introduced, our operations  The cost has also remained at a low level,” he said.

“As a result, we were able to set the price at a relatively low level, which made it difficult for Western companies to compete with us. We have already deeply reflected on this point. We have raised the price, and now many people think that Huawei products are very  Expensive.” He said.