Huawei on track to ship 200 million handsets in 2018, bringing it within reach of Apple

Huawei Technologies, China’s leading smartphone brand, is on track to ship 200 million handsets to both domestic and global markets in 2018, bringing it within reach of Apple as the second-largest vendor globally behind Samsung.

The Chinese company shipped 100 million phones as of July 18, the fastest pace of shipments Huawei has seen in years, said mobile segment chief Richard Yu Chengdong on Wednesday.

“Previously Huawei reached the 100 million shipments mark on December 22, 2015, October 14, 2016 and September 12, 2017. As it’s only taken just over six months to reach the target this year, we are now aiming for shipments of 200 million units by the end of 2018,” Yu said during a new product launch.

Huawei, which calculates its global mobile shipments by combining both Huawei and Honor-branded phones, has maintained fast growth momentum despite headwinds for industry shipments this year. The top two smartphone brands globally Samsung and Apple, have reported declines in shipments of 2.4 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively in the first quarter of 2018. Meanwhile Huawei shipped a total of 39.3 million phones during the first three months, edging closer to Apple’s 52.2 million over the same period, according to an IDC research note released in May.

Both Huawei and Honor brands have started to make inroads into Southeast Asian markets, especially in India, the world’s second largest smartphone market after China. Honor is Huawei’s budget phone brand. Both brands have picked up swiftly in the region in the second quarter, said Zaker Li, a senior industry analyst with IHS Markit.