New | Huawei aims to up smartphone shipments to 100 million in 2015, boost international sales
Huawei Technologies aims to increase smartphone shipments to 100 million units in 2015, compared with 75 million last year, and will boost smartphone sales from international markets to more than 60 per cent this year from 52 per cent in 2014, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Shenzhen-headquartered Huawei failed to meet its smartphone shipment target of 80 million units in 2014 due to intense competition with other domestic phone vendors like Xiaomi, Lenovo and ZTE.
However, the company succeeded in tapping into the middle-to-high end market last year with the launch of a model called Mate 7, whose standard version costs 2,999 yuan (HK$3,808) and the high-end version is priced at 3,699 yuan.
Huawei plans to raise the portion of sales from high-end devices including the Mate 7 to more than 30 per cent from 18 per cent in 2014. Last year, the company cut 90 per cent of its low-end phone models in order to focus on middle-to-high end products with better profit margins, according to the company.
Mainland smartphone maker Xiaomi had earlier said it aims to sell 100 million smartphones in 2015. Beijing-based Xiaomi sold 61.1 million units last year.
As Xiaomi said it would expand further into the global market, Huawei also vowed to boost its share of international sales to 60 per cent.
Beijing-based Xiang Ligang, the founder of telecommunication portal CCTime, said 100 million units is a challenging target for smartphone makers, because the market growth is slowing down both at home and abroad.
“Huawei is more advantaged to sell products in foreign markets as usually you need the support of local carriers,” Xiang said. “Huawei has worked overseas for years and accumulated lots of experience and established trust with local operators.”
Data from market research firm Strategy Analytics showed that Huawei ranked fifth in global smartphone shipments during the third quarter, with a 5.1 per cent share. It trailed Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and LG Electronics.
However, Huawai was not in the top-five list issued by researcher IDC, which replaced Huawai with Chinese rival Lenovo with a market share of 5.2 per cent worldwide in the third quarter.
