Depending on who you talk to, there are a few different takeaways from last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: Firefox OS debuting, Samsung’s Note 8, NFC integration, and more. They all pale in comparison to the buzz coming from China, however.

Huawei is coming for Apple and Samsung, and we should take them seriously when they say it.

For the uninitiated, Huawei is the top producer of mobile hardware in China. Originally a white-label product provider (branded as made by others), they have pivoted to a consumer-facing operation. In just three months, they sold a million units world wide. They have taken the Andriod platform and skinned it into a brand named “Emotion”. The newest offering, the Ascend P2, has been dubbed the fasted 4G phone in existence.

While that doesn’t necessarily bother Apple and Samsung yet, they certainly should take notice. All of the mobile providers in the UK offer Huawei products, so it wont be long before the US makes a go of it. With the pricing chief executive Wan Biao is proposing, it might be something T-Mobile could make a splash with.

When that happens, it is only a matter of time. 

Can a mobile hardware provider come out of nowhere to put a claim on Apples throne in less than 18 months? We shall see.