Huawei Technologies, the Chinese-based smartphone making company, is aiming to overtake the two behemoths of the smartphone industry, Samsung Electronics, and Apple Inc., within the next five years so as to become the world’s biggest smartphone maker and also gain a market share of 25 percent. This is according to a senior executive.
Richard Yu, one of the directors at Huawei, said that their main objective was to become the number one smartphone making company in the world. The company had the patience for the race, he said.
Huawei stands as one of the leaders of the largest suppliers of all telecom networking gear, together with the Sweden-based Ericsson. And in the past few years, the company has been slowly evolving and growing into a smartphone making business also.
Many analysts believe the company is already closing a gap between Samsung and Apple and between themselves, though the overall growth of the global smartphone market has been slowing down lately. Huawei’s smartphone sales increased by a huge 59 percent in the first quarter of this year, as compared to the quarter of the last year. On the other hand, Samsung’s sales were almost stagnant, and Apple sales even dropped by 14 percent. The quarterly results also meant that the company saw its market share in the field increase to 8.3 percent, and is now behind Apple at 15 percent and the leader Samsung, which stands at 23 percent.
Huawei has also been trying new things as seen by its introduction of the high-end phones. They released their latest flagship phone, the P9, and it has a dual-lens camera, which was developed thanks to its collaboration with Leica Camera AG, a German optics firm.
Mr. Yu said that the company’s growth was being driven through by their high end and premium segment phones. He said that for smartphone makers to lead in the market, they had to lead in the high-end market. He also said that they were tied in a long partnership with Leica, and he expected it to continue for another five years. He also said the company was thinking of entering the virtual reality platform. Since the company has a partnership with Google, a VR software providing a platform, the company is thinking of releasing a VR supported smartphone this fall.
The company’s sales have been growing not only in China but other regional markets, including Europe, and the Middle East. In the US, however, the company is still struggling to make an impact.
