I'm really excited about what Huawei will bring to the table, and what assurances it will make in terms of privacy.
China doesn't have a spotless track record in the matter, but neither does the US.
That's why I'm really excited to see where they will take this, the "more privacy than Android"-way, or the "We'll collect just as much". Because I think there's more to gain from going the former route.
Going the privacy route makes sense for e.g. Apple because it's a moat they can dig that Google can not follow. For the same reason that Google can't follow -reputation-, however, Huawei can't either. Too many of the people for whom privacy would be a selling point do not trust China or companies with ties to China.
They might be able to pull it off, but it's an uphill battle, so I wouldn't expect them to try.
Edit: OK, it's not exactly* the same reason as Google, as Google is practically unable to build privacy-preserving features without harming their primary revenue streams, whereas China might not force Huawei to not build privacy-protecting features. They do share a reputation problem though.
Going purely by target markets, I don't see how being privacy-focused would benefit them. The vocal minority that actually really cares about this is pretty small so it's not like that would net them any kind of real income.
There's literally an article on the frontpage right now that talks about how WeChat (also based in China) is heavily censored, moderated, and how people have been arrested for things they said in "private" chats.
China doesn't have a spotless track record in the matter, but neither does the US.
That's why I'm really excited to see where they will take this, the "more privacy than Android"-way, or the "We'll collect just as much". Because I think there's more to gain from going the former route.