Huawei targets 50 per cent smartphone market share in China on way to wresting global crown from Samsung
- Chinese telecoms giant on track to ship up to 260 million handsets globally this year
- Brand is third-biggest smartphone vendor in the world after Samsung and Apple
Huawei is targeting to win 50 per cent of the Chinese smartphone market by the end of this year as it seeks to wrest the global sales crown from South Korea’s Samsung.
Under siege by the US over its 5G-enabled telecommunications network equipment, the Shenzhen-based company is looking to extend its lead in China’s smartphone market, in which it currently has a 34 per cent share.
Huawei is on track to ship 250 million to 260 million smartphones globally this year, which would make it approach the No 1 position, its mobile chief, Richard Yu Chengdong, said during a conference in Shanghai on Thursday.
“We’ve dedicated to building Huawei’s smartphone brands for six to seven years and we will become the world’s largest smartphone brand no later than next year,” he said.
Chinese mobile phone brands have largely succeeded in smashing people’s perception that domestic suppliers are only good for inexpensive, low-quality products. That stereotype has beset many Chinese brands in the home appliances, consumer electronics, personal computer, car and mobile phone markets, where products from more established brands in the US, Japan or Europe were preferred by mainland consumers for many years.